Hello.

We are MNT Research. We develop and design at all levels of information technology: electronics, operating systems, applications and networks. We believe that computers should empower people from all walks of life and give you (not corporations) exclusive control over your data — to support your creativity, knowledge work and communication. We help make this a reality by creating our own open hardware, software and wearables. We embrace new and futuristic methods, but we also care deeply about vintage systems and which tricks they can still teach us.

Latest News

• 2021-03-07

  MNT Reform March 2021 Production Update

  When it became clear near the end of 2020 that things would be delayed by at least 2 months, we jumped at the opportunity to improve an aspect of the laptop that had been a matter of criticism by beta customers: the standard Kailh Choc keycaps don't have a particularly great feel, mainly because they are perfectly flat. After trying out the MBK concave keycaps, we talked to FKcaps about a collaboration. They were able to manufacture a new version of their caps in record speed that fit our laser engraving approach: a translucent ABS body painted with a thin layer of black PU. Our minimalistic design strategy of using only two different keycaps on the keyboard paid off here by simplifying the mold making process. The result is that the production MNT Reform keyboards look and feel even better than originally planned... → Read Article

  
• 2020-11-27

  MNT Reform Production Update November 2020

  This article is an update to MNT Reform, our open hardware laptop... → Read Article

  
• 2020-05-08

  The Much More Personal Computer

  In May 2020, MNT Research launched the MNT Reform open hardware laptop:.. → Read Article

  
• 2020-01-18

  Finishing Reform

  I'm typing this on a MNT Reform version 2, motherboard revision 2. Almost exactly one year has passed since we finished the previous big incarnation of Reform (which we call version 1). Back then, it was powered by i.MX6 and we needed at least a full day to assemble one. The new Reform has a much simpler architecture, more power, a bigger 1080p eDP display, a keyboard with a satisfying writing experience, and it can be used to get real work done. It can be assembled in half an hour (given populated PCBs)... → Read Article

  
• 2019-08-09

  MNT ZZ9000 Amiga Graphics Accelerator + Network, USB

  MNT ZZ9000 is the successor to the VA2000 Amiga graphics card. But it can do more than just graphics: based on the Xilinx ZYNQ XC7Z020 chip, it features not only a powerful 7-series FPGA, but also 2x 666MHz ARM Cortex-A9 cores and 1GB of DDR3 memory. All Picasso96 rendering functions are fully accelerated using custom ARM routines. As a bonus, ZZ9000 features an Ethernet connector with SANA-II support, and a USB connector for mounting an USB stick as an Amiga drive... → Read Article

  
• 2019-05-20

  Re-Introducing Reform

  During the last few months, based on feedback from beta customers and our own dog-fooding experiences, Ana and I redesigned almost all parts of MNT Reform, our libre laptop. We are now close to a concept that — we believe — will deliver on the promises of the campaign, in terms of modularity, openness, usability and performance... → Read Article

  
• 2019-01-14

  Status Update on MNT Reform

  A few days before Christmas 2018, we assembled the last one of the Reform Beta units. 13 Reform laptops exist in total; 10 went out to the adventurous people who pre-ordered them, two are for ourselves and one went to Crowd Supply in Portland as the demo unit for the upcoming campaign... → Read Article

  
• 2019-01-01

  MNT Reform: Open Source DIY ARM Laptop

  MNT introduces a new, open computer system. Launching soon on Crowd Supply... → Read Article
• 2018-11-19

  Using Xorg's modesetting driver with etnaviv

  Not many people seem to know that you can use hardware accelerated, stock Xorg (incl. Glamor) with the Vivante GPU found in the i.MX6 SOCs. In the past, this required using the out-of-tree "xf86-video-armada" driver. Because I sometimes meet people online that are very surprised I'm using the built-in "modesetting" driver instead, here is how to do it... → Read Article
• 2018-06-15

  Interface Critique Volume One: Beyond UX

  Examining conditions and contingencies of apparatuses and applications: Volume 1 of Interface Critique is now available as open access and print... → Read Article

  
• 2018-03-14

  MNT acquires aka-aki brand

  MNT acquires the brand assets of 2000s era mobile social network aka-aki... → Read Article

  
• 2017-01-16

  MusicSuit

  A MIDI suit with wireless inertial measurement units (IMUs). Collaboration with fashion designer Greta Melnik. Finalist of Telekom Fashion Fusion competition 2016... → Read Article

  
• 2016-04-16

  MNT VA2000, an Amiga 2000/3000/4000 Graphics Card

  VA2000 was MNT's first graphics card for the Zorro bus implemented as open source gateware for a Spartan-6 FPGA. It is superseded by MNT ZZ9000... → Read Article

  
• 2015-12-01

  Teledisko

  Teledisko is the world's smallest discotheque. Integrated in refurbished telephone booths, Telediskos are coin-operated machines that supply you with a full-blown, short-time partying experience, complete with fog, lighting effects, video sharing and photo printing. As a contractor, MNT developed Teledisko's hardware/software operating system and graphical user interface (GUI) on GNU/Linux, SDL and Arduino platforms. Today, Teledisko is a successful, self-sustaining business... → Read Article

  
• 2015-09-10

  Interim OS, a Language-Oriented Operating System

  Interim was an MNT experiment in building a minimalist OS in which the kernel itself is a Lisp compiler / REPL and all software comes in source code form only, inspired by Lisp Machines and Plan 9 from Bell Labs... → Read Article

  
• 2015-05-06

  Source Code Reading (Quelltextlesung)

  The "Quelltextlesung" (Source Code Reading) was a series of live readings/discussion of important software sources taking place in Berlin, Germany. It was established by Fiona Krakenbürger, Gabriel Yoran, Lukas F. Hartmann (MNT) and Sebastian Sooth (then at Wikimedia Germany). The final session took place at Re:publica 2015... → Read Article
• 2014-10-04

  VCFB 2014: Going Online With Vintage Commodore Computers

  At Vintage Computing Festival Berlin 2014, we ran a workshop on how to go online with a Commodore C64/SX-64... → Read Article
• 2014-10-02

  Wikimedia-Salon "DATENBERG"

  MNT's Lukas F. Hartmann was invited to the "DATENBERG" panel discussion hosted by Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. to talk about his experiences with 23andme... → Read Article
• 2014-06-29

  Talk at Digital Bauhaus Summit 2014

  If you want to embark on a project together, questions regarding the right tools and spatial and temporal organization quickly pop up. How would you organize the team’s knowledge and the communication that is necessary for aggregating and distributing this knowledge?.. → Read Article
• 2013-11-25

  My deadly disease was just a bug

  This is my official translation of the story I originally posted over at @mspro's blog ctrl+verlust and which received widespread attention in the German media... → Read Article

  

Reach Out.

MNT Research GmbH develops open source hardware, software and textiles in Berlin, Germany. What can we do for you?

info@mntre.com

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MNT Research GmbH
Anschrift: Fehlerstr. 8, 12161 Berlin
Geschäftsführer: Lukas F. Hartmann
Registergericht: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg
Aktenzeichen: HRB 136605 B
VAT ID: DE278908891
WEEE: DE 33315564

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