Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 11th Dec 2007 22:49 UTC
Sun Microsystems is releasing the specifications of its new UltraSPARC T2 processor, formally code named Niagara 2, to the open-source community Dec. 12, as part of the company's ongoing effort to build more of a community around its signature chip. The goal of releasing Niagara 2 into the open-source community through the General Public License is to create a larger community around the chip and increase the number of operating systems and applications that can use the processor, said Shrenik Mehta, senior director for Fronted Technologies and the OpenSPARC Program at Sun. In 2005, the company released the specification for the UltraSPARC T1 processor and the designs have been downloaded 6500 times since then, Mehta said.
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Member since:
2006-01-03
This is simply amazing
Any student/professional in u-electronics design will certainly appreciate this. We're talking about a brand new processor, flagship of an important company.
Most of people certainly does not have the installation to build a full Niagara 2 chip, but the community can always get inspired by a particular module of a last-gen processor.
In counterpart, Sun can have new ideas for the design of the future generation of their chips, even if in these moments maybe the design of Niagara 3 is totally finished, which is very common in chip design.
By opensourcing the Niagara 2 design, Sun is offering to the community an impressive amount of working-time. I think we can just welcome this step from Sun in becoming a more opensource company.