HackerspaceWiki. Engineering ToolBox. How to Make Everything Ourselves: Open Modular Hardware. A modular system unites the advantages of standardisation (as parts can be produced cheaply in large amounts) with the advantages of customisation (since a large diversity of unique objects can be made with relatively few parts).
Modularity can be found to a greater or lesser extent in many products (like bicycles and computers) and systems (like trains and logistics), but the best examples of modular systems are toys: LEGO, Meccano, and Erector (which is now the brand name of Meccano in the US). LEGO, Meccano and Erector are composed of relatively few elementary building blocks, which can be used to build various objects. The parts can then be disassembled and re-used to build something completely different. Apart from the elementary buildings blocks, these manufacturers have produced many more specific building blocks, which are less versatile, but further increase customisation possibilities. Grid Beam, Bit Beam, Open Beam, Maker Beam and Contraptor. Shapeways 3D Printing & the Culture of Creativity. Local 3D Printing.
Top 10 Ways to Turn Your Retired Gadgetry into the Technology of the Future. Building the open source laptop: How one engineer turned the geek fantasy to reality. For decades anyone buying a new computer did so in the knowledge that within a few years it would be overtaken by a much faster machine.
Driving this rapid evolution has been Moore's Law – which has allowed the building block of information processing, the transistor – to be packed in greater numbers onto ever smaller computer chips. But Moore's Law is slowing, as various engineering challenges have limited the rate at which transistors can be added to processors and this throttling back will increasingly provide an opening for the little guys to make their mark in the hardware world.