Custom board
Compute, clocking, outputs and control interfaces developed as a coherent platform, with board-level validation before any product claims.
Software meets
serious engineering.
Brimstone develops the Core and Control platform. Dr Trevor Howard Brearley and Howard Electronics are developing specialist electronic hardware and prototypes to complement it.
AN INDEPENDENT ENGINEERING PARTNERSHIP
Designed to work together, not to lock you in.
Howard Electronics brings electronics, hardware testing and prototype development. Brimstone brings system software, music libraries, playback logic and an open-minded approach to existing equipment.
The first combined-platform prototype is in design and evaluation. These are engineering projects, not finished retail hardware.
H·EHOWARD ELECTRONICS · HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT
WHAT WE'RE BUILDING
The first combined Brimstone platform.
A purpose-built system centred on music, measured performance and maintainability — currently in the prototyping and design stages.
R-core power supply
A proposed transformer-based PSU, with attention to regulation, grounding, magnetic leakage and measured noise. Comparison requires repeatable test conditions.
Modular audio endpoints
A dedicated audio transport direction for compatible USB, S/PDIF, HDMI LPCM and supported Meridian communications, once validated.
No magic claims: a low-noise PSU is an engineering aim, not proof of audible superiority or a claim to beat the thermal-noise limit. The prototype is not yet a certified consumer product.
BUILDROOT AND DEBIAN
One music vision. Different ways to run it.
The best hardware is the equipment that works for the person using it.
Buildroot appliance software
A purpose-built immutable operating system direction with recovery and independently signed Core updates. The appliance programme is still in engineering.
Learn more →NICs in the current VM666 image →
Keep existing hardware
The published Debian platform and compatible macOS Core make it possible to get more life out of good computers, alongside Howard Electronics' hardware research.
Learn more →Howard Electronics retains its own identity. Any prototype photography, measured performance data or individual product specifications are published only after engineering review and approval.
BE PART OF BRIMSTONE
See where Brimstone is going.
Our hardware is being developed alongside the software, but availability and claims stay tied to real test results.