[LINK] Open Source PC Design

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Rachel writes,
 
> The "Open Source" processor is nothing new  www.opensparc.net/  rachel

ahh .. thanks Rachel. So, an open source chip, and now an open source PC,
as in the heading thanks brd. Great, roll on open source house (etc) plans

Open source etc, testimonials :-)  www.opensparc.net/testimonials.html   


* From Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO, O'Reilly Media

"Sun's move to open up the design of the new UltraSPARC 64-bit chip is a 
new frontier for open source. We've long understood the benefits of 
openness and sharing for driving innovation and quality in software 
development, but it has yet to be tried for hardware design. 

While no one expects garage hackers doing their own chip fabs, there's no 
question that hardware designers can learn from each other's work as 
readily as software designers, and that design elements taken from one 
chip could more quickly advance the development of others. 

I'm hopeful that Sun's leadership in this area will encourage similar 
moves from other players."


* From Richard Stallman, found of the Free Software Foundation

"The free world welcomes Sun's decision to use the Free Software 
Foundation's GNU GPL for the freeing of OpenSPARC. 

We'd love to see other hardware companies follow in Sun's footsteps."  


* From Eben Moglen, founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center

"Sun's decision to release Verilog source code for the UltraSPARC hardware 
design under a free software license is a historic step. 

The future direction of hardware design will be charted through the same 
principles of deep collaboration and free exchange of ideas that were 
pioneered by the free software and open source communities. 

Sun is showing its profound understanding of the forces shaping our 
technological future in making this decision." 


* From Scott McNealy, Chairman, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

"This company was founded on the principles of openness, community and 
competition. In our 23-year history, we've contributed more code to the 
open source community than any other organization on earth. 

Today, we're breaking new ground by extending the open source movement 
into the IT hardware business and removing the barriers for adoption.

 We're throwing open the doors of innovation for everyone to participate, 
fostering new growth and economic opportunity for Sun and the Internet of 
the future."

* From Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

"Proprietary technology relegates you either to a niche or to the ditch.

 We're growing our market opportunity by steadfastly open sourcing the 
entirety of our software portfolio -- from the Solaris OS to Java 
developer tools -- and now we're taking the next step by open sourcing the 
world's most innovative microprocessor under the GPL. 

Giving our customers more choice and driving community innovation expands 
our economic opportunity and is forcing our competitors to sit up and take 
notice -- we are back on offense."  Copyright © Sun Microsystems, Inc.
--


Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia



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