Novena is a rather interesting approach, which has been started by Bunnie and Sean "xbos" Cross. The goal of Novena is to create a notebook that is based entirely on open platform hardware, which is for example why, they decided to use an i.MX6Q motherboard from Freescale.

Novena might most certainly serve a niche market, since useres are 100 percent free what they want to do with the hardware. The complete documentaion is open and litterally anything can be adapted to very own demands and needs. The fact, that there is a complete documentation also allowed Bunnie and Sean "xbos" to play with the firmware, which is rather helpful, especially if something needs to optimized for certain hardware.

A closer Look at the motherboard reveals there is an i.MX6Q from Freescale, which is based on a Cortex A9 processor, that clocks at 1.2 GHz. Other than that there is a Vivante GC2000 GPU with OpenGL ES-2.0 support. When it comes to memory, there can be a maximum of 4 Gigabyte DDR3-1066, which should basically be enough for office use. In terms of connectivity we find a mini-PCIe slot, two USB2.0 ports, an enthernet port and audio jacks. Another interesting choice is the display. The guys decided to go for a panel with 2560 x 1700 resolution and 13 inch. The battery should offer plenty of power to make the device run for a total of six hours.

At this point in time, this setup won't make it into our Rig of the Day section, since it's partially made from cardboard and paper, bu tnevertheless the concept is really interesting.




Source: Le Comptoir du Hardware