OpenEphys v. Intan RHD Recording Controller

[Michael Loftus]

Hello,

I'm curious about the differences between the Intan RHD recording controller and the OpenEphys acquisition board.  The OE board costs $3K, and the Intan device costs $9K.  Where does the bulk of the price difference come from?

Happy Halloween,

Michael

[Jon Newman]

Hi Michael,

In order to provide an accurate answer to your question, we would need to know exactly which Intan device you are referring to, and with which options.

Regardless of that answer, we can state that, under the hood, there is very little difference between our acquisition board and the Intan system. They both run very similar "code" (really FPGA designs). The FPGAs used are quite similar. A major difference in that domain is that Intan uses, if I'm not mistaken, Opal Kelly modules (hardware, driver, and API) to govern acquisition (i.e. control and acquire from the headstage and shuttle data to the computer to USB), whereas Open Ephys uses an open source module developed in house for this purpose, so there is probably a markup there because Opal Kelly devices are bought from as OEM components. 

On the business side, we have low margins compared to most companies in this space. Our prices are calculated based on estimated sales with the minimal markup required in order to continue development and pay ourselves appropriately. This stems from our ethos, which includes motivating elements other than profit (e.g. we believe in open source development, fair pay, labor rights, and democratic governance even in business). 

All that said, it's important to remember what Intan did for the field in terms of price reduction.  Before Intan, a multichannel acquisition system was on the order of 60-100kUSD. Intan made it possible for labs to have multi systems, reduced animal stress through miniaturization, and allowed entry into the space by labs that could not previously afford it. I think people just entering this space dont have  knowledge of that fact, even though it occured about 10 years ago and allowed OE to get started and compete with established companies. 

At the end of the day, nobody in this space is getting extremely rich :).

Jon

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