\begin{block}{\emph{``It's all about interfaces'', Bob Dalesio}}
Your piece of HW can speak to others if you can agree on a set of interfaces. Examples (currently in OHR) include Ethernet, VME, PCIe, FMC\ldots
\end{block}
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\begin{block}{Design compromises}
The price to pay for sharing (and saving time and money) is to choose sub-optimal technical solutions from time to time. We did not choose to write an OS more suited to our needs than Linux, did we?