為 Open Source Hardware 發放 USB Product ID 的 pid.codes

pid.codes 的說明就很清楚了:「Welcome to pid.codes」。

由於 USB-IF 對每個 vendor 收 USD$5000,而且不可以跟其他單位共用:

If you’re a maker, hobbyist, or startup company producing your own USB device, you’ve probably discovered that you need a USB Vendor ID and Product ID to uniquely identify your device to computers. The USB-IF’s position is that the only way to do this is for each organisation to pay $5000 for a unique Vendor ID, which they may not share with other individuals or organisations.

所以就造成很多人惡搞 Vendor ID 與 Product ID:

For many makers and small companies, this is a prohibitive amount of money, and forces them to resort to workarounds, such as using other organisations' VIDs without permission, or simply making up a VID and PID. These solutions make things worse for everyone, by damaging the assumption that a VID/PID combination is unique to a given device.

而他們尋求解決方案,取得了一份在 USB-IF 禁止共用前的 Vendor ID,從而解決這個問題:

pid.codes seeks to solve this issue for anyone producing open-source hardware. We have been gifted a Vendor ID by a company that was issued one by USB-IF and has since ceased trading; they obtained the Vendor ID before the USB-IF changed their licensing terms to prohibit transfers or subassignments.

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