Hardware program¶
Electricity into useful private intelligence
A modular household system that can evolve with compute
Unison's hardware pathway connects today's developer systems to an open, serviceable personal node and a possible household rack built from components available in the 2027 and 2028 horizon.
The hardware program treats compute, memory, storage, networking, radios, sensors, security, power, cooling, enclosure, installation, and lifecycle support as one integrated design problem. Stable software contracts allow each physical implementation to evolve while local identity, context, policy, and recovery remain continuous.
Product tiers under evaluation¶
These tiers are design hypotheses that allow evidence to guide the eventual product family.
| Tier | Purpose | Physical hypothesis | Qualification focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer node | Software and adapter development | Existing PC or NUC | Reproducible setup, contract tests, and declared limits |
| Household node | Continuous private services and moderate local inference | Quiet single node or short-depth enclosure on ordinary household power | Sustained workload, reliability, energy, acoustics, thermals, and journeys |
| Household rack | Whole-house inference, resilient storage, networking, radios, and sensors | Modular rack or cabinet with installation requirements derived from measured load | Electrical, structural, ventilation, service, safety, and installer review |
| Lab and reference rack | Contributor development and qualification | Multiple accelerators, instrumentation, and hardware-in-the-loop fixtures | Repeatable configuration and revision-bound evidence capture |
The household rack may require a dedicated circuit, planned ventilation, heat rejection, or professional installation. Measurements, electrical-code review, and user research will determine which tier needs those provisions.
Modular system boundaries¶
Compute and memory
Replaceable blades can combine general compute, accelerators, and memory profiles selected for qualified workloads and open driver support.
Resilient storage
Redundant local media carries authoritative and derived data with independent backup, restore, replacement, and lifecycle policies.
Network and security
Management, trusted service, guest, sensor, and external traffic receive explicit boundaries alongside firewall and hardware-root-of-trust services.
Radios and sensors
Regionally appropriate, replaceable modules connect through a governed gateway with device identity, provenance, permissions, and revocation.
Power and cooling
Metered distribution, protection, graceful shutdown, acoustics, directed airflow, and heat rejection are sized from idle, typical, burst, and sustained evidence.
Enclosure and service
A distinct Unison enclosure supports accessible status, keyed replacement, independent isolation, front service, physical security, and safe installation.
Current concept envelope¶
The first architecture envelope models 180 watts at standby, 900 watts during typical household operation, 1,800 watts during sustained inference, and a 2,400-watt 15-minute peak. Every watt entering the system eventually becomes heat in the installation space. These values are planning inputs for circuit, cooling, acoustic, and heat-reuse studies. They are not measurements or product ratings.
The concept sets a provisional 45 dBA acoustic target and requires dedicated circuit, professional installation, and heat rejection assessments. Incremental nodes may operate in much smaller envelopes.
Budgetary concept BOM¶
The hardware repository records a dated, machine-readable BOM. Its first snapshot is an architecture budget rather than a vendor or component selection.
| Concept group | Quantity | Unit estimate | Extended estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded chassis and enclosure | 1 | $900 | $900 |
| Compute and memory blade envelope | 2 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
| Redundant storage set | 1 | $2,200 | $2,200 |
| Network, security, and radio group | 1 | $1,200 | $1,200 |
| Power and cooling system | 1 | $1,800 | $1,800 |
| Concept total | $13,100 |
The snapshot is dated August 15, 2026, in US dollars. It excludes installation, tooling, certification, taxes, shipping, spares, and design labor. Future snapshots will identify manufacturer part numbers, quantities, alternates, lifecycle state, source, currency, price basis, date, lead time, region, license constraints, and power and thermal contribution.
Open design pathway¶
Custom electronics, PCBs, mechanical parts, and enclosure sources are intended for publication in editable formats whenever licensing, safety, and third-party rights permit. The planned source structure includes:
- system architecture, interface registry, and power and thermal budgets;
- normalized BOM sources, dated price snapshots, alternates, and lifecycle risk;
- KiCad electronics with generated fabrication outputs;
- editable mechanical and enclosure sources with neutral STEP exchange files;
- assembly, service, calibration, and qualification procedures; and
- revision-specific evidence indexes.
Hardware licensing remains an open project decision. The current repository materials are governed by their license-status file. Open source availability provides inspectability and collaboration while safety, RF, EMC, electrical, and installation claims continue to require revision-specific evidence.
How contributors can engage¶
Contributors can begin with requirements and interfaces before target component selection. Useful paths include workload characterization, blade interfaces, storage resilience, network segmentation, sensor gateways, hardware security, power measurement, thermal modeling, acoustic design, enclosure ergonomics, BOM automation, compliance planning, and accessible service interaction.
The unison-hardware repository contains the current system requirements, interfaces, BOM schema, enclosure pathway, validation script, and qualification plans. Run its structural validator before proposing interface or BOM changes.