WARP Hardware Availability

Rice's final build of hardware is still set to ship later this spring. We will update everyone who placed orders in the coming weeks as the manufacturing progresses. As always, please contact us anytime (warp-project[at]rice.edu) with questions.

The Rice University WARP project began offering hardware for sale at highly subsidized prices in mid-2007. The response from the community has been phenomenal. We have already shipped more than 40 kits to schools and companies around the world, and an even larger number of kits have been requested. We are very excited by the growing community of active WARP users and the potential benefits all WARP users will realize as a result.

Unfortunately, this success has come at the cost of the enormous burden of manufacturing, testing and shipping WARP hardware in quantities which far exceeded our expectations. The students, staff and faculty of the WARP project want to use the platform for novel research and extend is capabilities in interesting ways. This work is impossible, however, when the same students and staff must inspect, test and ship a new batch of 50+ kits every 3-4 months. You need only look at the laggard pace of updates in the past few months to the WARP source and documentation repositories to see the effects of our recent larger-scale manufacturing efforts.

As a result, the Rice WARP project has decided to work with an outside company that will take over responsibility for manufacturing, selling and supporting WARP hardware. This arrangement will provide the whole community much easier access to WARP kits, with better availability and shorter lead times. It will, of course, also result in higher prices for WARP hardware.

The details of this arrangement will be posted here in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, Rice will build one final batch of WARP kits and sell them at the original, subsidized prices listed below. We are asking that orders from this batch be limited to two kits per institution.

Please see the FAQ below for answers to common questions. As always, please feel free to contact us anytime at warp-project[at]rice.edu.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I want to do networking research. What good are two kits?
A: You will obviously need many more kits to build a useful research network from WARP nodes. However, the learning curve for using WARP is fairly steep. Other universities who purchased multiple nodes found that as they were learning to use the tools, models and code which enable WARP designs, they only used two kits for many months. We expect the same will happen with any first-time WARP user, and we want to enable as many researchers as possible in the short-term.

Q: Will Rice-built kits work with future WARP hardware manufactured elsewhere?
A: Yes. The FPGA, radio and clock board designs will interoperate seamlessly.

Q: Does this mean WARP kits will cost more?
A: Yes.

Q: How much more?
A: We don't know the new prices yet, but it is fair to assume they will at least double in order to make the manufacturing process commercially sustainable.

Q: More than double?! Isn't that an awfully big price increase?
A: Yes. The kits sold through Rice are highly subsidized in several ways. Major cost reduction came from component donations by our partners, academic pricing on several parts, and use of Rice labs and resources for testing, shipping and handling. For a company, all these translate into increased costs and hence an increase in price is unavoidable. Nonetheless, we are confident that the final price will still be lower than any other comparable product in the market. Also note that the WARP open-access repository will never be commercialized and will always be hosted at Rice. Thus, by moving the manufacturing out of Rice, the WARP team can return its focus to expanding the repository with new tools and designs to the benefit of all WARP users.

Q: Will there at least be a discount for academic customers?
A: Yes, definitely. We are insisting on favorable pricing to universities.

Q: If Rice can sell me two kits in their final build, is 10 really that much harder?
A: Yes, absolutely. With our current manufacturing situation, Rice students & staff inspect and test every single board we receive from assembly. Thus 10 kits directly translates to 5x more time spent in testing. If we continue dedicating so much time to manufacturing, the rest of the project suffers. And we think everyone will agree it's bad for all our users if we don't have time to continue developing and supporting the open-source wireless designs that make WARP unique.

Q: When can I place an order for more kits?
A: Once the new manufacturing arrangement is finalized, we will update this page with the new pricing and availability details.

Q: Can I place a pre-order?
A: Not immediately, although we expect this will be possible soon. But if you're interested in purchasing hardware in the coming months, please email us (warp-project[at]rice.edu). We will pass this along to our new manufacturing partner to help them better plan future hardware builds. Also watch this page for updates on pricing and availability.

Q: When will new kits ship?
A: The fabrication process for the final build of Rice kits started last week. We expect to ship the last batch of Rice-manufactured kits in April 2008. We expect that our partner will ship their first build of kits in August 2008. Future builds of kits will be more frequent, resulting in significantly shorter lead times than the 4+ months currently imposed by managing manufacturing at Rice. We will update this page as these timelines become more definite.

Rice-built WARP Hardware

• 1 FPGA Board
• 1 Radio Board
• 1 Clock Board

MIMO Node: US$6000

• 1 FPGA Board
• 2 Radio Boards
• 1 Clock Board

For a demonstration of two MIMO nodes, please see this news item.

Terms
The WARP hardware is being sold by Rice University at cost. Purchasing institutions will need to sign the Rice Materials Transfer Agreement. Two versions of this agreement are used, depending on your organization. Examples of each agreement are available here:

• MTA for US State Schools
• MTA for All Others (private schools, companies, etc.)

One key term of both agreements is that the hardware is sold without warranty. Technical support is provided free-of-charge via the WARP Forums and Repository.

Ordering Process

Step 1:

1. Figure out what combination of hardware you want to purchase.
2. Send an email to warp-project[at]rice.edu with the following information:
   • How many of each board you want to purchase
   • The full name of your institution
   • The full primary mailing address of your institution
   • The name of the person to whom the boards will be transfered (generally the researcher who will use them)
   • The email address and phone number of the person who will process the MTA and invoice at your institution
   • The name and title of the person who will sign the agreement on behalf your institution. If you do not know this, we will leave blanks you can fill in later
3. We will then send an invoice and a Materials Transfer Agreement ready for signature. The MTA must be signed by someone at your institution with the authority to agree to its terms.

Step 2:

1. Send the signed MTA and a check payable to 'Rice University' in USD to the address below. Please add a short note with the check to indicate that is a 'Payment for WARP hardware purchase, to be processed by Office of Technology Transfer'.

   Ms. Bridget Smalley
   Business Manager
   Office of Technology Transfer - MS 705
   P.O. Box 1892
   Rice University
   Houston,Texas 77251-1892

2. Finally, watch your email for updates from the WARP team on the status of building your hardware.

• For general project questions or questions about purchasing hardware, write to warp-project[at]rice.edu.
• For questions about the Rice MTA, write to Ms. Nila Bhakuni (bhakuni[at]rice.edu) with the subject line 'Questions regarding WARP MTA'.
• For technical questions about WARP, visit the WARP Repository and WARP Forums.