Hackathons are most known for spurring innovation in software development, but hardware designers and data center operators can also benefit from short periods of intensive collaboration. The same source of inspiration that led to features such as Facebook chat and the social network’s timeline can be applied to cloud infrastructure and data center design. In fact, Facebook and GigaOM will place more emphasis on the hardware side of IT in an upcoming hackathon, which will be held June 18 at Facebook HQ. The next day, winners will present at GigaOM’s Structure conference and be eligible for up to $10,000 in seed funding.
Hardware hackathons have to take a somewhat different approach from their software-centric counterparts. While the events often produce functional programs, it is more difficult to create a working hardware prototype within the same time constraints. According to Facebook program manager John Kenevey, participants will be judged based on the completeness of their design and the concept’s value to scaled-out computing. OCP plans to offer support beyond the potential seed funding by allowing winners to leverage consulting services.
“There are a few tricks to making hackathons a success however, from tools to setting expectations,” GigaOM columnist Stacey Higginbotham wrote. “On tools, the trick is bringing in software that makes the job of collaborating on hardware designs faster and cheaper. The Open Compute hackathons use Upverter, a company that allows people to build circuits in a web browser and share them easily, as well as GrabCAD, a company that provides libraries of CAD files, so each hacker isn’t starting from scratch when it comes to designing standard physical products.”
Registration is currently open and approximately 100 applicants will be accepted. OCP is looking for designs related to scale-out computing and the Internet of Things. Regardless of the event’s outcome, the brief history of hardware hackathons indicates a high chance for innovative designs to emerge.
The first hardware hackathon
While it is a relatively new idea, OCP hosted a hardware hackathon in January. The event targeted several areas of infrastructure, as Upverter CEO Zak Homuth noted in an Open Compute blog post, including storage, sensors and displays, communication, power, racks and mechanical, and robotics. Seventy participants formed teams to address a number of challenges, which included:
- Debug port aggregation
- 19″ to Open Rack conversion
- High-density Open Rack JBOD server
- Mesh-networked sensors
The event spurred a number of designs to address each challenge. For example, the goal behind the Open Rack conversion was to create interoperability between legacy hardware and the Open Rack standard. The team produced a three-piece rack design that could support either type of hardware. The team working on mesh-networked sensors was able to build a prototype and was working on documentation toward the end of the hack.
After the event, each team presented what they had developed and judges rated each project in five main categories: schematic, layout, mechanical, prototype and documentation. In addition, each team had to show its design’s potential use in data centers and the feasibility of manufacturing the product. The group behind port aggregation won by hitting on four of the five main areas as well as being close to design completion.
“The energy that poured into ideation and team formation was pretty awesome to watch,” Homuth wrote. “We had whiteboards set up all over the room, with little semicircles around each and hackers debating the problems they were excited about.”
