Will Pirating Electronic Become A Thing?

[AndThenThereWas1]

Harvard researchers have unveiled a 3D printer capable of printing electronics. It uses thermoplastics and conductive silver inks to achieve the task. It can also pause to let the user insert a processor or any other necessary elements.

 

The company also partnered with Autodesk for use of its CAD software to create electronic designs that can then be uploaded to the 3D printer.

 

 

The Voxel8 Developer's Kit can be pre-ordered Jan. 6. The 3D printer is expected to ship late this year. It will retail for $9,000.

 

 

Ultimately, Voxel8 will bring to market a broader set of functional materials and advanced printing platforms that will allow mass customization of working parts.

Voxel8 has already gotten a round of funding from two venture capital partners, and it won the MassChallenge, a state-wide technology competition that offers $50,000 prize money for further development.

 

We are definitely headed in the right direction in terms of the 3D printing capabilities. The current printer is by no means capable of very intricate electronics, but a few generations of this printer may give us the ability to download and print everyday electronics. It might be many years from now, but my life will be complete when i can finally print a computer at home . How do you guys think companies would react to people being able to download (and potentially pirate) designs and print them at home?

 

source

[WinNut]

Eventually, maybe.

[PerfectTemplar]

Ya, probably.

[givingtnt]

that is sick. also. electronics ? I could see myself printing a phone someday

[thatguyjerry]

I dont think we'll see it in our lifetime, but I think it'll happen eventually

[alby800]

brb going to 3D PRINT A MUTHAF*CKING TITAN Z

[TheKDub]

Quite possibly yes.

[dizmo]

I dont think we'll see it in our lifetime, but I think it'll happen eventually

A lifetime in a persons life is virtually a millenia in terms of electronics.

I could easily see it happening within 10 years.

Think about it. 20 years ago we hardly had internet or computers at all.

[Enderman]

The thing about pirating software is that someone buys the digital product, then lets it be downloaded by others. With hardware, you cannot just upload it to the internet and have others downloaded.

If you wanted to pirate a motherboard for example, you would need to have the original engineering schematics to be able to reproduce it. It is impossible for someone to just look at a motherboard and be able to replicate a digital copy.

 

So unless someone hacks a company to get blueprints and other stuff needed to replicate stuff, this will not be useful to "pirate" any kind of advanced hardware.

[AndThenThereWas1]

The thing about pirating software is that someone buys the digital product, then lets it be downloaded by others. With hardware, you cannot just upload it to the internet and have others downloaded.

If you wanted to pirate a motherboard for example, you would need to have the original engineering schematics to be able to reproduce it. It is impossible for someone to just look at a motherboard and be able to replicate a digital copy.

 

So unless someone hacks a company to get blueprints and other stuff needed to replicate stuff, this will not be useful to "pirate" any kind of advanced hardware.

As this tech advances, companies will need to stay with the times. Much like what is happening with most movies being watched primarily over the internet, there will be designs that will be sold over the internet because sometimes it doesn’t make sense to pay for production and shipping when it can be done at home for a smaller price. When is the last time you had someone mail you documents that you needed to fill out? It’s just cheaper to print them at home. Advanced hardware will take a longer time to become digitally available, but when it gets cheap enough it will happen. There is also the very real possibility of design leaks and/or replications.

[bcredeur97]

I would totally make my own phone with this. and my own tablet. and my own desktop. and my own -fill-in-the-blank-

[Phillyphries]

You wouldn't download a ca-

 

Oh...

[Bloodyvalley]

Hell, you can make a 3D printer with a 3D printer. lol

[Opcode]

I will use this 3D printer to print me more 3D printers.

 

Profit $$$

[dlf]

Primitive replicators? . . . .

[rummykan]

What some people don't seem to realise about 3D printing is that the materials are by no means cheap. Printable plastics easily cost over $1/1cm3, let alone the cost of printable metals. Add the cost of such an advanced printer and I just don't see a day where manufacturing at home will ever be more economical than high yield, specialised machinery.

 

That being said, the day that 3D printers can match the complexity of precision fabrication plants will be a very interesting day indeed. It could enable people to prototype their own processor architecture, imagine the breakthroughs that could take place.

[Bloodyvalley]

What some people don't seem to realise about 3D printing is that the materials are by no means cheap. Printable plastics easily cost over $1/1cm3, let alone the cost of printable metals. Add the cost of such an advanced printer and I just don't see a day where manufacturing at home will ever be more economical than high yield, specialised machinery.

 

That being said, the day that 3D printers can match the complexity of precision fabrication plants will be a very interesting day indeed. It could enable people to prototype their own processor architecture, imagine the breakthroughs that could take place.

Indeed

[DigitalHermit]

Depends on the process...

 

I mean, you most likely can't do 14nm processors on a 3d printer (currently)...

 

That or we'll start seeing open source chip designs for 3D printing... (WHICH WOULD BE F*CKING AWESOME!!!!)

[AndThenThereWas1]

What some people don't seem to realise about 3D printing is that the materials are by no means cheap. Printable plastics easily cost over $1/1cm3, let alone the cost of printable metals. Add the cost of such an advanced printer and I just don't see a day where manufacturing at home will ever be more economical than high yield, specialised machinery.

 

That being said, the day that 3D printers can match the complexity of precision fabrication plants will be a very interesting day indeed. It could enable people to prototype their own processor architecture, imagine the breakthroughs that could take place.

As more people buy 3D printers the cartridges will get cheaper (like what happened with printer ink). I would expect the prices to drop substantially if 3D printers became as common as normal printers. There is also the possibility of in-home recycling. Imagine being able to take metals and/or plastic you don’t need and just drop them in a recycler that turns them into usable printer cartridges.

[rummykan]

As more people buy 3D printers the cartridges will get cheaper (like what happened with printer ink). I would expect the prices to drop substantially if 3D printers became as common as normal printers. There is also the possibility of in-home recycling. Imagine being able to take metals and/or plastic you don’t need and just drop them in a recycler that turns them into usable printer cartridges.

I have no doubt it will become cheaper, I just don't think it will be 'cheap' using current materials; they are a finite resource after all. That recycling angle would be amazing though, use what you already have to 'upcycle' to the latest model of tech.

 

The one potential I could imagine for printing your own tech goods would be using alternative materials - say a printer that can print carbon nanotubes - however I think this sort of thing would be a long way off. 

[thatguyjerry]

A lifetime in a persons life is virtually a millenia in terms of electronics.

I could easily see it happening within 10 years.

Think about it. 20 years ago we hardly had internet or computers at all.

to print a computer? maybe a low power one, not a good one. Think about what were talking about here; the process involved in creating processors, and in the future these will be even crazier processors like 8 nm, is way to complex to be just printed at home by a 3d printer. There are some parts that we will not be able to do this with.

 

Also the backlash from manufacturing companies would be humongous the second this becomes a possibility, which I'm not saying will make pirating this stuff impossible, but will delay it considerably.

[martinrox1568]

You wouldn't download a ca-

 

Oh...

I never even got that quote. If I could then hell yea I would download a car

[Syntaxvgm]

 

Soon this will have to be the new argument- 

[KungPaoChino]

When this comes out. Time to print me some extreme i7s, motherboards and gpus.

[Peopie]

Im not sure if people are joking or not, but I really don't think we would be able to afford printers with the capabilities of printing modern processors. We could probably print simple large processors, but nothing too complex.