Openmoko is a discontinued project to create a family of

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s, including the hardware specification, the operating system ( Openmoko Linux), and actual

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

development implementation like the Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunner. The whole project was sponsored by Openmoko Inc. The first sub-project was Openmoko Linux, a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

-based

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

designed for mobile phones, built using

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

. The second sub-project was developing hardware devices on which Openmoko Linux runs. The first device released was the

Neo 1973 Openmoko is a discontinued project to create a family of open source mobile phones, including the hardware specification, the operating system (Openmoko Linux), and actual smartphone development implementation like the Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunn ...

, in 2007, which was followed up by the Neo FreeRunner on 25 June 2008. On 2 April 2009, Openmoko suspended development of their third device, codenamed GTA03, to focus on the FreeRunner. In 2010, development of the GTA03 was continued by Golden Delicious Computers under the new codename GTA04, which includes major hardware revision, and the first unit was shipped on 10 October 2011. Unlike most other mobile phone platforms, these phones are designed to provide end users with the ability to modify the operating system and software stack. Other Openmoko-supported phones are also available.

History

Project Openmoko was announced 7 November 2006 by its founders

First International Computer First International Computer, Inc. (FIC; ) is a Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer and system integrator for automotive electronics and smart building controls. FIC provides design consultancy and supply chain management services for autom ...

(FIC). The Initial core team for Openmoko project included Werner Almesberger,

Michael Lauer Michael S. Lauer is an American cardiologist and physician-scientist. He is the deputy director for extramural research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Education Lauer received education and training at Rensselaer Polytechnic Ins ...

, Sean Moss-Pultz and Harald Welte.

Etymology

The name ''Openmoko'' is an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for Open Mobile Kommunikations. The codename for the phone product series, ''GTA'', is an abbreviation of "GSM-TI-AGPS" which indicates the main components of the phone.

Software

Originally Openmoko Inc. developed its own operating system for the phones, which was called Openmoko Linux or Om. It uses the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

, together with a graphical user environment built using the

X.Org Server X.Org Server is the free and open-source implementation of the X Window System display server stewarded by the X.Org Foundation. Implementations of the client-side X Window System protocol exist in the form of ''X11 libraries'', which serve a ...

. The

OpenEmbedded OpenEmbedded is a build automation framework and cross-compile environment used to create Linux distributions for embedded devices. The OpenEmbedded framework is developed by the OpenEmbedded community, which was formally established in 2003. Ope ...

build framework and

opkg opkg (''open package management'') is a lightweight package management system based upon ipkg. It is written in C and resembles Advanced Package Tool (APT)/dpkg in operation. It is intended for use on embedded Linux devices and is used in this ...

package system were used to create and maintain software packages. The initial version named Om 2007 used the

GTK+ GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and proprie ...

toolkit and the Matchbox window manager. Om 2008, which was released in August 2008, added support for the Qt toolkit and

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

17. Despite continuous improvements both of these versions did not reach a stable state. As a result, Openmoko started developing Om 2009, which had the goal of providing a stable environment based on the

middleware Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue". Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement co ...

from freesmartphone.org, a project that was financed by Openmoko. However, this version was not finished either, and in April 2009 Openmoko cancelled the development of software. This task was taken over by several efforts of the community. Several groups have created modified versions of the original software or ported other systems to work on the phones. Among others, the Openmoko phones now support

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...

, Gentoo,

Qt Extended Improved Qt Extended (named Qtopia before September 30, 2008) is an application platform for embedded Linux-based mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, video projectors and mobile phones. It was initially developed by Qt Software, ...

, QtMoko, and SHR.

Openmoko Inc. based hardware

Openmoko hardware aspires to the term

open-source hardware Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement and a ...

although in various areas the availability of cell phone components and legal requirements prevent full conformance to this term. As do many other vendors, Openmoko Inc., notoriously failed to meet the publicly announced hardware release dates, and postponed releases many times. The first supported phone, the

GTA01 (version: Bv4), was distributed exclusively through openmoko.com from July 2007 to February 2008. The second revision of hardware based on the GTA01 design is the Dash Express, an

automotive navigation system An automotive navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on ...

. The Dash Express has a faster CPU (Samsung 2440) and Wi-Fi ability. The third hardware platform, the Neo FreeRunner codenamed GTA02 is an improved version of the Neo 1973. Both the Neo 1973 and the Neo FreeRunner lack an integrated camera.

Neo 1973

The Neo 1973 (codenamed GTA01) phone was a "developers only" release. The device is named after the first year of

cellular telephone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive telephone call, calls over a radio freq ...

communication: the inventor of the cellular phone, Martin Cooper, made the first call in 1973. The phone released was inconsistently-named Neo 1973 or Neo1973. The Neo 1973 was sold from 9 July 2007 to February 2008. It was priced at

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

300 for the basic model, or

450 for a kit including more tools for hardware work. The initial releases of the Neo 1973 were hampered by supplier shortages, which forced the shipping date to slip, and hardware development difficulties exacerbated by the small size of the core team. Furthermore, other platforms have been ported to the Neo 1973, including

Qt Extended Qt Extended (named Qtopia before September 30, 2008) is an application platform for embedded Linux-based mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, video projectors and mobile phones. It was initially developed by Qt Software, ...

and

. The phone supports the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 1900 MHz GSM frequency bands. Many Linux and unix programs used on desktop and server platforms, including utilities and games, have been successfully run on the phone. In addition to Linux, the

NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was forked. It continues to be actively developed and is a ...

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

and L4 kernels have been adapted by users to run on the platform or are under development. This hardware platform can be emulated in software with a high level of compatibility using a version of QEMU included in the Openmoko software suite.

Release under Creative Commons license

Shortly before the shipping of the successor, the Neo Freerunner, the OpenMoko project released the

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

files, the

schematics A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the key information the sc ...

and other development resources of the Neo 1973 and Freerunner under a Creative Commons license, the CC BY-SA 3.0. The

are available for download from OpenMoko and

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

Neo FreeRunner

The Neo FreeRunner (codenamed GTA02) was the successor to the Neo 1973. The changes include a faster processor (clocked at 400 MHz), 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, two

accelerometer An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is accele ...

s and 3D graphics acceleration. It was released for the mass market on 25 June 2008. It was intended for users with a high demand for customizability. The Neo FreeRunner started shipping on 24 June 2008 and was priced individually at

250 and at US$200 each if purchased in multiples of five. A debug board is available for US$99. The Neo FreeRunner includes features that were not present in the development release of the phone (Neo 1973). The changes include 802.11 b/g

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

, SMedia 3362

graphics accelerator A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobil ...

, two 3D

s, Samsung 2442 SoC, and 256 MB of flash memory.

Functionality

As of the 2008.08 software revision only the GSM phone module is working reliably; the Freerunner's hardware does not yet have fully functional software interfaces. The software development is split between

Qtopia Qt Extended (named Qtopia before September 30, 2008) is an application platform for embedded Linux-based mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, video projectors and mobile phones. It was initially developed by Qt Software, ...

under X11,

FSO

.Debian On the Openmoko Neo FreeRunner Phone
Slashdot article. There are also some derivates of the Openmoko main distribution SHR and FDOM (Fat and Dirty Openmoko). The

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

Qtopia distribution is recommended by Openmoko for users not wishing to use early development stage software, and FDOM for those who want to test the latest features and fixes without worrying about stability. It is also possible to run

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

on OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner.

has been patched to run on the OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner by at least two different developers. OpenWrt can be compiled for the Neo FreeRunner.

In media

The Neo FreeRunner makes an appearance in

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...

's 2010 novel ''

Zero History ''Zero History'' is a novel by William Gibson published in 2010. It concludes the informal trilogy begun by ''Pattern Recognition'' (2003) and continued by ''Spook Country'' (2007), and features the characters Hollis Henry and Milgrim from the la ...

'', as the phone initially used by the character Milgrim.

Dash Express

On 2 January 2008 the Dash Express, a

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

device, with hardware developed by Openmoko Inc. was announced running Openmoko Linux. This device, initially codenamed th
HXD8
seems to use little or none of the openmoko user-interface, simply using patches to the kernel developed by Openmoko Inc, and running an application fro
Dash Navigation
on it to provide navigation and a user interface.

3D7K

There is a lack of reference material for what happened to the GTA03 (codename of 3D7K). Openmoko built 3 working prototypes which had capacitive touchscreens and a fully transparent curved case .

WikiReader

The latest product from Openmoko Inc. was the

WikiReader WikiReader was a project to deliver an offline, text-only version of Wikipedia on a mobile device. The project was sponsored by Openmoko and made by Pandigital, and its source code has been released. The project debuted an offline portable read ...

, a device to read Wikipedia articles offline.

Golden Delicious based hardware

The German engineering firm "Golden Delicious Computers" began producing the GTA04 with an 800 MHz Cortex-A8 ARM (1 GHz) processor, an 800 MHz C64x+ DSP (digital signal processor) core, and a 3D graphics accelerator. With those specifications and the 512MB RAM combined with 512MB NAND Flash and 32GB expandable microSDHC, it would have been similar in performance to the iPhone 4 and

iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iOS devices, fifth generation o ...

Golden Delicious GTA04 board

Golden Delicious GTA04 board is designed to exchange the GTA02 board in the Neo FreeRunner housing - and the GTA01 board in the Neo 1973 housing. This was a release of the Openmoko Beagle Hybrid, a platform using the

Beagle Board The BeagleBoard is a low-power open-source single-board computer produced by Texas Instruments in association with Digi-Key and Newark element14. The BeagleBoard was also designed with open source software development in mind, and as a way of ...

as a basis for developing and prototyping a next generation Openmoko phone. The following month, Golden Delicious stated their long-term goal of bringing such a phone to market. The new GTA04 board fit into the Neo Freerunner case and connected to the existing display and other components. The first batch of GTA04A3 EA (early adopter) started shipping on 10 October 2011. Version GTA04A4 first batch started shipping on 31 January 2012. The design for the next revision, GTA04A5, contained some minor but relevant upgrades in design and parts, and replacement of end-of-life components. The production was crowd funded. It is also possible to order a ready made phone called OpenPhoenux or GTA04 Complete.GTA04 Complete
/ref> Hardware: * CPU: ARM Cortex A8 with 1000 MHz * Memory: 512 MB RAM / 1024 MB NAND * Interconnect: WiFi, WLAN, Bluetooth * WLAN: UMTS module with 3.75G (up to 14.4 Mbit/s) * Sensors (Barometer, Compass, Gyroscope, Accelerometer) * GPS * USB OTG 2.0 * connector for optional camera module * well documented building blocks so user allowed to write their own boot loaders and kernels.

References

External links

* {{Official website
Development portal

Neo Freerunner 3D model, click and drag to rotate

LWN.net: A first look at the OpenMoko Neo1973
August 2007
"Ten years anniversary of Openmoko"
by Harald Welte ARM architecture Linux-based devices Mobile phone standards Mobile software Open-source mobile phones Creative Commons-licensed works First International Computer mobile phones Discontinued smartphones Mobile phones with user-replaceable battery