---
title: Open-source progress in China
description: The Sino:Bit is the first Chinese device ever to be certified by the Open Source Hardware Association
---

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# [Open-source progress in China](https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected/open-source-progress-in-china)

 Written by [Get Connected Blog](https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected/author/get-connected-blog) | January 31, 2018

Technology has the power to change our lives for the better. But what do you do when technology doesn’t quite work for you? You have two choices – live with it, or change it.

The Micro:Bit is a great piece of tech to help the teaching of coding in schools and colleges. Consisting of a small circuit board about half the size of a credit card, and including a CPU, flash memory, [Bluetooth Low Energy](https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected/things-you-should-know-about-bluetooth-range), USB, an accelerometer and magnetometer, it has everything kids need to build complex projects.

Its biggest problem outside of Europe and the Americas is its display. A 5x5 LED array is great for the Latin alphabet but it can’t display non-Latin characters such as Chinese. Rather than live with it, one Chinese developer decided to change it.

## Meet the Sino:Bit

Naomi Wu is a Cantonese techie who strongly advocates for Open Source and creativity to improve Chinese tech and move it away from simply copying the rest of the world. Naomi saw the Micro:Bit, and a similar device called Calliope, and realized that it wasn’t quite right for the Chinese market. Working together with engineers at Elecrow Technology she developed the [Sino:Bit](https://medium.com/dark-mountain/sino-bit-3691a7decf68).

The main difference is the upgraded LED matrix from 5x5 to 12x12. This one modification opens up development to non-Latin languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. Culture plays a huge role in Chinese society, with a strong emphasis on writing, and so the ability to display Chinese writing on a device is hugely important.

## Localisation beyond the basics

But it’s not just the display that makes the device more suited to the Chinese market. The octagonal shape is based on the Bagua – the eight trigrams used in ancient Chinese philosophy. The board is also colored Red and Gold – colors that are significant to Chinese culture.

Overall the board is bigger than the Calliope and Micro:Bit, with a few more connectors and ports added, though Naomi points out that in reality, you’d have to add these to make a functioning product and most of the projects that people make will be big enough to cope with the bigger size.

## Certified hardware

The Sino:Bit is the first Chinese device ever to be certified by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), a non-profit organization founded in 2012 that advocates for open-source hardware. The certification aims to offer a simple process for producers of open hardware to indicate that their products meet a uniform and well-defined standard for open-source compliance.

This is a big deal both for China and the rest of the world. Getting millions of Chinese kids thinking about and developing their own projects should lead to some interesting times ahead.

 

 

 

[View full post](https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected/open-source-progress-in-china)

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