[bitcracker]

I know that there are several open hardware projects (Opencores for instance). But I consider _true_ open hardware as hardware were we always will have _full_ control over _every_ tiny detail of the system.

The TTL level is the right foundation for that. If we could go down to the NMOS level or so for 3D printing, that would be even better. We'll see what the future shows.

[ballooney]

You've been able to build your own hardware from 74xx series chips for decades now, infact about half a century! Infact, that was the only option you had back in the day. This is retro rather than new, like making a ham radio out of thermionic valves, say. Nothing new, but kinda cool and certainly educational if you're new to the field.

I think that's why the GP took objection to your rather statesmanly proclamation that this was heralding some kind of revolution in open hardware. It isn't, it's just a rather neat project.

However, in your followup comment I definitely agree with you in that as soon as I can fab my own silicon in my garage, the world will be my mollusc. But we're pretty close nowadays with a $20 FPGA from digikey.

[sliverstorm]

Come now, 74xx series chips hardly suffice. Exorbitantly expensive, difficult to source, impractical packages, copyrighted closed-source design... ;)

[zokier]

diy silicon is definitely a cool concept but this project, while cool in itself, is not a step towards that goal. and that was (one of) my issue with GP post.

[bitcracker]

I understand what you mean, and you are basically correct. But nevertheless I see this project as a milestone as it helps to focus on selfmade FPGAs instead of soldering TTL chips to copy some hard wired retro systems.

If we someday will be able to print our own chips then they will surely be FPGAs because debugging and reprinting hardwired chips would be likely too expensive.