Novena Five-Year Anniversary
Purchase a Novena while supplies last! Read the full update.
ICE40 FPGA Add-in Card
For any and all Novena users, a quick note: Philipp Gühring is organizing a production run of ICE40 FPGA add-in cards for people who want a 100% open software stack for making FPGA bitfiles. Read the full update.
Heirlooms Shipping
It's been a while since we've had an update. We're writing this time in particular to the Heirloom backers who have been patiently awaiting delivery of their hand-crafted units. Read the full update.
Software Updates
Now that we've had some time to become familiar with Novena, we've seen new and interesting bugs crop up. We've spent time fixing these bugs, and the result is a system that is much more stable. Read the full update.
April Backer Update
Dear Backers, We apologize for the long pause since our last update. However, we think the best update anyone can get is a tracking number for their order. To date, we've managed to fill all the mainboards, desktops, and about 25% of the laptop orders. We're currently cranking laptops out at a rate of about 30 per week, which means we'll be finished with the bulk of the campaign orders in about 4... Read the full update.
February Backer Update
Dear Backers, Team Kosagi has just returned from China where we were, among other things, checking up on Novena case production and making sure quality was up to snuff. Above is just one illustration of why, as a general rule, its not economical to do the production of laptops on the scale of a few hundred units. This is a stack of scrap material from various trial runs weve been through, iter... Read the full update.
Desktop Shipping Update
Dear Backers, Before we get started, theres just one thing we want everyone to see: We are starting to ship desktop units to backers, and youre going to need to assemble the LCDs into your bezels. Its extremely important that backers be aware that holding the LCD by the black area will most definitely break your LCD; a small amount of torque applied to the PCB within the black area will ... Read the full update.
Manufacturing Update: Desktop Units
Dear Backers, Happy holidays! This will be a relatively brief update, as both xobs and I are currently en route to the 31st Chaos Computer Congress. Were happy to report that the first round of Novena main boards have reached the doorsteps of many of our customers. Weve also sent a pilot shipment to each unique country on our list of backers. With any luck, most of the pilot units will be deli... Read the full update.
Manufacturing & Delivery
Dear Backers, First, a sincere apology for missing our target of shipping Novena mainboards in November. bunnie in particular expresses his regrets for slipping on such a major milestone. However, the good news is we are just a couple of weeks delayed. The material for the mainboards is all in the factory, and first articles have been delivered off of the production line and approved. This week... Read the full update.
Four-month Progress Report
Dear Backers, Its been four months since we finished Novenas crowdfunding campaign, and weve made a lot of progress since then, with a team of people hard at work to make Novena a reality. It takes many hands to build a product of this complexity, and we couldnt do it without our dedicated and hard-working team at AQS. Above is a photo from the conference room where we did the T1 plastics ... Read the full update.
Progress Report
Dear Backers! Weve been working hard to make Novena a reality for you, and wanted to update you on our progress on both the hardware and the software fronts. For the hardware, weve got all the PCB components ordered, and all the custom production tools are in process, except for the speaker box. Were still deciding upon a final dimension for the speaker cabinet the trade-off were mulling is wh... Read the full update.
Manufacturing Status
Dear Backers, June was a busy month. Weve fully engaged Jon Nettleton and delivered his promised campaign money, and Novena T-shirts have shipped; some backers have received them by now. Beyond that, weve finessed the design for production and prepared most of the fabrication documentation. Not surprisingly, Novena is a fabulously complex piece of hardware to manufacture. We will be making no l... Read the full update.
Campaign Statistics
Dear Backers, Weve had numerous requests for campaign statistics, so here they are! We had a total of 145 boards, 173 desktops, 180 laptops, and 12 heirloom laptops backed during the campaign. In terms of geographic distribution, 278 units are going to the US and 183 units are going to the EU, with the remainder split primarily among Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and Singapore. We also have a... Read the full update.
Thank you! Time to get to work.
Dear Backers, Thank you! Because of you, we raised an astounding $700k+ for the Novena campaign. The past 48 hours have been a whirlwind, with us blowing through every stretch goal and then doubling up once again. We are sincerely grateful for all the support and enthusiasm around our project, and we look forward to working with you over the coming months to build a robust and diverse user comm... Read the full update.
Final Push!
Dear Backers, We are simply overwhelmed with the support our campaign has received in the last 48 hours. Were currently over $560k, and all the stretch goals have been well met. Weve got nothing left to say but thank you for the amazing job everyone has done to help get the word out. Theres now just 14 hours left in the campaign, and that means there is just 14 hours left for your friends and c... Read the full update.
Fourth Stretch Goal Complete!
Dear Backers, SDR! SDR! SDR! Software. Defined. Radio. Say it because its fun! A couple weeks ago, the SDR stretch goal loomed like a distant mirage, something we set out there as a true stretch. And yet now, here we are, writing you to inform you that weve met one of our trigger criteria for the stretch goal a minimum of 200 combined units desktop/laptop/heirloom (system-level) units backed. ... Read the full update.
Third Stretch Goal Complete!
Dear Backers, We are speechless. Within 24 hours of sending out our previous update to you, were in the position of writing yet another update to inform you that weve cleared the third stretch goal at $400k. This is simply amazing, we are thrilled and overwhelmed at the support and at the enthusiasm of our growing user community. For the third stretch goal, all Novena board and system backers w... Read the full update.
Second Stretch Goal Complete!
Dear Backers, We hear you loud and clear - BREAK OUT ALL THE GPIOS! Thanks to your overwhelming support, we have just blown past the second stretch goal at $350k, and all our backers will be receiving with their Novena system a General Purpose Breakout Board (GPBB). This makes it easier than ever to unlock the power of your built-in FPGA, as its 40-pin header format is conducive to economical r... Read the full update.
Competition Winners!
Dear Backers, We have winners for both the Novena logo competition and the Novena hash competition! (The Novena hash competition was a bit of covert fun watch the campaign video closely to find a hint.) First, we have a logo! Its logo 015 in the original list of submissions and was submitted by Francisco Gonzalez-Blanch: Francisco will be receiving a Novena desktop computer and a t-shirt with ... Read the full update.
First Stretch Goal Complete!
Dear Backers, Holy cow! We just blew through our first stretch goal for 3D drivers, at $300k. Were looking forward to working with Jon Nettleton to enable Novena, and the greater i.MX6 user community, with 3D graphics drivers. This is going to be awesome! With 6 days left, we still have a great chance to hit some of our other stretch goals. Next up is the General Purpose Breakout Board, a perfe... Read the full update.
Logo contest submissions are in!
Hello, backers! We received an overwhelming 124 logo submissions from all around the world and all sorts of people. Its great to see so much enthusiasm. Well carefully consider each submission and announce the winner this Wednesday, May 15. In the meantime, please take a look for yourself and spread the word. All submissions are still the property of their creators. Without further ado, here ar... Read the full update.
Thank you!
Dear Backers! Thank you. Because of you, we have reached our goal of $250,000, enabling us to manufacture our dream an open hardware laptop. Now that weve met our funding goal, we can begin the real hard work of cutting steel into the molds that will ultimately shape our vision. This will be an epic journey, and were fortunate to have your good company, enthusiasm and patience as we tackle the... Read the full update.
More on the Hackable Bezel
When designing Novena, we had to balance budget against hackability. Plastic parts are cheap to produce, but the tools to mold them are very expensive and difficult to modify. Injection mold tooling cost for a conventional clamshell (two-body) laptop runs upwards of $250,000. In contrast, Novena’s single body design has a much lower tooling cost, making it feasible to amortize tooling costs ove... Read the full update.
Over $200k!
Dear backers, We are ecstatic to have passed $200k in our campaign to bring Novena to the world! Thanks to all our existing backers and fans for all the support they have lent to our project without your help we wouldnt be here. We now have $50k left to raise in 19 days; even more if were to hit any of our stretch goals, which include hot topics like 3D graphics drivers and hardware breakout b... Read the full update.
Logo Competition
Dear backers and enthusiasts, Novena needs a logo. And we need you to help! Today were announcing a competition to design a logo for Novena, and the winner will get a desktop version of Novena and a T-shirt emblazoned with their logo. The competition starts today. Submissions should be sent to novena@crowdsupply.com by the end of May 11th. On May 12th, all submissions will be posted in an updat... Read the full update.
Stretch Goals
Were very flattered to have reached almost 70% of our goal already and would like to thank our supporters. A lot of people have reached out to us to extend Novena and make it even better, and so were offering these stretch goals to provide you an even better open laptop. Partnering with Jon Nettleton for Open 2D/3D Graphics Drivers on Novena: +$50k ($300k total) [COMPLETE AS OF MAY 12!] We desi... Read the full update.
IRC Channel
Dear backers and enthusiasts, Novena is an open design, and communication is a crucial part of openness. Even with all the documentation in the world, sometimes youve just got to ask a question. IRC is perfect for this, as its both open and real-time. Bunnie and Xobs will be hanging out on the #kosagi channel on the OFTC IRC network when theyre working on Novena. If you have a question, sto... Read the full update.
Hello Backers!
First, were blown away by the support and encouragement weve received from all corners. Were nearly two-thirds of the way to funding the Novena Open Source Laptop and still have over a month of the campaign left. The response to the Novena, not just in campaign pledges, but also in all the conversations taking place in e-mail, forum threads, and in person, has shown us that there are a growing ... Read the full update.