It’s nice to blog again, I have been away for a while but this is because I have been quite busy, in-between travelling to perilous lands (Afghanistan...twice) , studying and having a handful but cheerful son to take care of when I am in Nairobi - I have been engaging on a project that I have had a burden on for quite some time. I once heard a saying – “Africans have been conditioned to consume what they do not produce and produce what they do not consume” and it really struck me, as I looked around I realized how true the statement was/is. So I made a vow to change that as much as I can in my domain - technology. What do you think of when we talk about technology in Africa ? I am sure many of us think of IT, but is Technology is not limited to just IT. Ndubuisi Ekekwe (a patent holder on a microchip) once wrote an article saying “IT is more consumption based, the fundamental technology that drives IT is microelectronics and we have to participate in that domain. We have to get there...” and out rightly declaring “Technology is not IT “ and thus in the same breadth I concur that while Africa has made great strides in making our own software and sharing the same because we have open source projects such as Ushahidi that have been used globally to crowd source information. We are not yet there because we still import devices from somewhere else. We are happy to run our software on Hardware which at best we have theoretical knowledge of what is going on in them. I agree with Ndubuisi, that we as African have been shy and slow to go into that domain. I believe that hardware manufacturing is a win-win setup even for Africans for the following reasons.
- While hardware manufacturing is not as profitable sometimes as software is (it’s not exactly inventing facebook), it’s possible to get many versions of hardware existing in the same market due to market segments and thus everyone gets paid as opposed to software services where there are single big players and everyone else seems to be making losses.
- Hardware is something that you can show to your mum and relatives. Any software developer in Africa knows that it’s very difficult to explain what they actually do to their relatives. However, if you conceive and manufacture a device – you have a physical manifestation of your work and not just stories.
In order to make this posting much more than a runt but an avenue that I can share what I have learnt so far. The project I have been engaged in is the making of a computing device. Prima facie that sounds really big but it’s not as big as it seems. I have researched, read and read even more on how to get electronics working ever since I was inspired when I watched a 2009 video done by AllGo (http://armdevices.net/2010/07/23/indias-35-tablet-is-based-on-my-video/) on the tablet device that has a BOM (bill of material) of $35 this was before the Indian government release a variation of the same. I have been successful at getting most of the things running because of the existence of 4 things. I believe that these 4 things will enable Africans run African software on African devices:
- The first thing that has made it possible for a simple boy from Bahati in Nakuru, Kenya to design computing devices is the existence of information on the internet. The existence of the opensource tools to design devices, the existence of hardware projects and for the unscrupulous ones the use of Piratebay, isohunt or even emule to get Cadence Allegro for your PCB design. The existence of tonnes of reading materials ranging from simple schematics to complex device designs is a shot in the arm for any person looking to getting any device working.
- The second thing that is paramount in making African hardware a reality is use of System on chip (SoC) processors. I believe that this is the single greatest step in hardware computing since the multicore processor. Basically a SoC processor is a chip that integrates all components of a processor on to a chip...yes you heard me – ALL, from RAM to the CPU, from CACHE memory to audio and video codecs. Some have GPUs and they are becoming multicore. This basically makes it easy to design a piece of electronic equipment without caring how to connect these components. What one needs to be armed with is the datasheet for your SoC of choice. e.g. http://cache.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/data_sheet/IMX53CEC.pdf?pspll=1 . Some of the processor manufacturers such as freescale, have create reference designs and exposed schematics and PCB designs used to create the devices for all and sundry, this makes it possible for a person with a low R&D budget to get a device working right off the bat.
- The 3rd thing is the availability of Android. While the banner on this blog says “I love windows phone”, I believe Andorid is the Operating system of choice for small fish like me in making this device a reality. Android is open source and the existence of custom ROMs out there that are able to make your device look nice really easily is a boon to small fish and hobbyists. Processor manufacturers are supporting us to this end in making compilations that work with their SoCs. I don’t think we have the competence to write low level RISC statements that interface drives of devices such as cameras and the processors however we do have the competence to compile drivers for the Linux kernel that runs android and with the help of forums like xda port functionality on to our devices.
- Finally the last thing that makes it possible for us to create devices is the existence of ODMs, these are Original Design Manufacturers and not popular parties in some areas of east Africa. Because manufacturing is expensive....really expensive, one needs to leverage the existence of these factories that take your design and manufacture in bulk for you. I had initially wanted to do everything myself but found it impractical. Getting components such as Pixel Qi screens from the manufacturer was very expensive. The printing out of PCBs was cheaper ($17) but the mounting of components was close way over $250 per device. My dream device would cost upwards of $500 – this would be impractical. However when one harnesses the power of ODMs, a small company like mine is able to get devices manufactured cheaply due to the reputation of these manufacturers. The design remains yours. I believe this should be a temporary step in the dream of making African computation device manufacturing a reality. But the sooner we can get an African ODM working, the better for us. However, a device conceived by an African mind from casing to PCB and SoC to touchpanel but manufactured by a Chinese ODM is an African device! I believe it is analogous to a child conceived by 2 loving parents who are unable to take the pregnancy to full term but choose implant on their treasure in a surrogate mother’s womb for nurturing during the 9 months of gestation after which the surrogate mother gets paid and the baby is taken home by the biological parents. FYI...Apple does it...(anyone with an iDevice should read the back it says..ASSEMBLED IN CHINA)
if harnessed properly, I believe that these 4 things will indeed create an opportunity for African minds to conceive devices that have at heart solutions to our problems and thus being a step in the right direction in making “Africans consume what they produce”.
