OpenSPARC: chip design goes Open Source
Sun decided to Open Source it’s Niagara (UltraSPARC T1) chip design
“While there’s a good deal of skill in the instantiation, a silicon chip these days is “just” the compiled version of a software design. A chip like the UltraSPARC T1 is actually a huge Verilog program compiled to atoms instead of assembly language.”
link
“You don’t know where it’s going to go,” said Sun’s CEO Scott McNealy, during a product launch event in New York. “That’s the beauty of it.”
link
click to enlarge
“In the coming months we plan to post source code, documentation, and tools based on our 64-bit, multithreaded UltraSPARC T1 processor. The UltraSPARC T1’s CoolThreads technology has set a whole new standard for the industry in terms of throughput and energy efficiency, and now you can join the revolution. It’s worth a peek; it’s free. Welcome to the world of 64-bit computing, and 32 threads.”
Damn, you gotta love this! I’m a huge fan of OpenBSD on SUN hardware… seems with this, that this is a combination I’ll be able to use for a long time ahead :-) Open Source software on Open Source hardware… it’s a beautiful world after all ;-)
permalink - 
add to del.icio.us
previous: NADD Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder
