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Sun Moves Into Commodity Silicon

Samrobb writes "According to Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz, Sun has decided to release its UltraSPARC T2 processor under the GPL. Schwartz writes, 'We're announcing the fastest microprocessor we've ever shipped this week — delivering 89.6 Ghz of parallel computing power on a single chip — running standard Java applications and open source OS's. Simultaneously, we've said we're entering the commodity marketplace, and opening the chip up to our competition... To add fuel to the fire, the blueprints for our UltraSPARC T2... the core design files and test suites, will be available to the open source community, via its most popular license: the GPL.'" Sun is still working on getting these released; early materials are up on OpenSPARC.net.

2 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'm thinking China. by larry+bagina · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "researching their own chip design" = industrial espionage in taiwan for the latest x86 design.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  2. tivoization? by larry+bagina · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    the GPL isn't about free it's about FREEDOM -- the rights of the end user to modify the program. Will I, as an end user of a GPL processor, be able to modify the processor? This looks like yet another big company abusing the spirit, if not the letter, of the GPL.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.