Open Source Finally Hits Real Silicon

pagercam2 writes "While Open Source software has many success stories, hardware and particularly chips haven't had as much. While there have been multiple Open Source projects, none have come to a final product until now. The OpenRISC 1000 has been implemented by Flextronics Semiconductor(a division of Flextronics, the contract manufacturer possibly best known for its production of many Cisco products) along with PCI, 10/100 Ethernet, serial, GPIO etc. ... Details and pretty pictures available at OpenCores.org, and it even runs uClinux. Good Job!"

Comments

Re:One can always hope..

[MoonBuggy]

I think it's either gonna end up like that, which would be great, or it's gonna end up with the slashdot crowd all being locked up for using Linux on hardware which breaches Uber-DMCA codes and is a tool of the terrorist communist nazis who go round killing puppies.

Having just read back my own post, I'm really hoping we get OSH (open source hardware) going before it becomes illegal to develop.

Re:Finally a competitor for the 286

[grub]

A lot of what's floating in space runs with what we could consider antiquated hardware.

Old != Junk

So what's the point?

[Afromelonhead]

I guess I can see how this would appeal to the many /. readers who are very pro-Open Source. To me, though, this has a distinctly different application than that of Open Source software. Sure, people have loads of hard drives and other random computers to go installing all their *BSD/Linux, but how many people have the ability to produce these chips? In addition, many, many people have at least some coding ability that can be used to contribute to the Open Source software projects, but do that many people really have the ability to recognize mistakes on the circuit boards and actually fix them?

Just my two cents...

Re:What can't be open-sourced?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about the old VW sedan, especially the off-patent parts? Can an open-source automobile design based on, say, the 1980 VW sedan be set-up and evolved in poor countries?

You'll never be able to produce an automobile en mass scale cheaper than VW (or nearly as good).

In general, what problems would there be in creating open-source engineering designs for hardware of all kinds branched off from off-patent intellectual property?

Again you would never be able to mass produce the item cheaper than a proprietary company. Besides there is very little demand for box cameras and tube radios.

Re:Where do they expect this to go?

[kien]

Today, we will have made a CPU to compete with the 486...

I'll take an open-source, standards-compliant 486 computer over a 2Ghz Trusted Computing appliance any day.

--K.

Re:whats the point? - It moves is the point.

[vik]

Maybe today open hardware is an esoteric industry. But with self-assembling circuits being the way things are heading (What? IBM's announcement of self-assembling FLASH didn't make Slashdot? Shame on the mods.) that'll change. Why? Because the most practical way to make dense circuits will be as an FPGA where the self-assembling units are not FLASH modules but FPGA cells. In effect, all major components become FPGAs.

But it won't stop there. Turning this new capability to its advantage, it will make sense to re-compile the CPU cores to perform the task at hand with maximum efficiency. If you're going to start doing that, an open design is nigh on essential.

We are rapidly entering an era where it is worth designing things that cannot yet be built, because the manufacturing technology is catching up very rapidly. Even now, Sony are designing their consumer device chipsets as FPGAs to shorten time to market. The trend will not decrease.

Vik :v)