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Volume 1, Issue 6 December, 2006
We thought it would be useful for our
community to get to know more about our OpenSPARC Board. Starting
with this issue of the OpenSPARC Community Threads newsletter we will
be interviewing each of our board members.
Volume 1, Issue 6 December, 2006
We thought it would be useful for our
community to get to know more about our OpenSPARC Board. Starting
with this issue of the OpenSPARC Community Threads newsletter we will
be interviewing each of our board members.
The first board member interviewed is
David Weaver from Sun Microsystems. David has an extensive
educational background with a BS in Computer Engineering from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a MS in Computer Science
from Northwestern University and an MBA degree from the University of
Phoenix. His work history includes assignments with AT&T Bell
Labs, Nuvatec, Inc. and, since 1985, David has been working at Sun
Microsystems.
David brings a wealth of experience in
the design and development of SPARC systems to the OpenSPARC Board.
This includes:
-
Initial SPARC software project
lead for SunOS port and compilers
-
Sun liaison to AT&T during the
AT&T-Berkeley Unix merger for Unix System V
-
Cross-compiler project lead for
SPARC, 680x0, i386, and IBM mainframe hosts/targets
-
Author and editor of all published
SPARC architecture specifications, including SPARC V8, SPARC V9, end
UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
-
Sun project manager for SPARC JRC
project with Fujitsu
-
Chairman of SPARC International's
Architecture Committee
-
Chairman of Sun's SPARC
Architecture Strategic Working Group.
CT: David,
what do you see as the goals and objectives for OpenSPARC?
David: Broaden the SPARC market, help bootstrap start-ups with an available,
proven, modifiable processor design, provide a platform for academic
research, and provide a base design for commercial processors with
custom needs.
CT: Where
do you see OpenSPARC heading?
David: OpenSPARC has the very real potential to become "the Linux of
processor designs".
CT: What
do you think is the key accomplishment for OpenSPARC this year?
David: Over 4,000 downloads of the OpenSPARC T1 source code - exceeding
our first-year goal in about 7 months!
CT: Are
there any improvements you would like to see on the OpenSPARC
initiative?
David: Get
the word out a lot better that "64 bits, 32 threads, and free"
isn't just a marketing slogan. It's real and there is nothing else
like it available! Many start-ups, universities and established
commercial vendors could benefit greatly from taking advantage of the
OpenSPARC platform.
When David isn't extolling the virtues
of OpenSPARC he is an avid photographer, an instrument-rated private
pilot, and a father of two. Thank you David for being our first
OpenSPARC board member to be interviewed.
Announcements
OpenSPARC
Downloads Pass 4,000 - The
number of successful downloads of the OpenSPARC Verilog RTL has
exceeded 4,000. Given that this has occurred in just over six months
time is really remarkable.
Of these OpenSPARC downloads 58% of you are individuals, 27% have
company affiliations and 4% represent interest from university and
research institutions. The top five countries represented are United
States (23%), China (16%), Japan (11%), Germany (5%), and India (5%).
Additionally, 8% of you downloaded new versions of the RTL as they
became available.
Please make sure that you have the latest version of the OpenSPARC
RTL (version 1.3)
OpenSPARC at IP-SOC 2006 - Fadi Azhari, Director of
OpenSPARC Marketing, will be presenting one of the keynote addresses
at this year's IP-SOC 2006 Conference. Fadi's talk is titled "Hardware initiatives in the Open Source community". IP-SOC 2006
will be held in Grenoble, France this December 6th and
7th. Please join Fadi at this conference.
OpenSPARC
Tutorial Available - The
OpenSPARC tutorial, "Innovating with OpenSPARC" moderated by
Shrenik Mehta and David Weaver of Sun Microsystems at last month's
ASPLOS XII is available through the OpenSPARC.net website.
FreeBSD Port to UltraSPARC T1 Available - On Nonmember 12th,
the first install ISO and live CD for the FreeBSD port to UltraSPARC
T1 was made available. Check it out at
http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/sun4v.html.
"Platform for
Network Equipment, Linux Edition" - Earlier this month, Wind
River Systems, Inc. announced their support for Sun's next-generation
UltraSPARC T1. Specifically, Wind River's Platform for Network
Equipment, Linux Edition will be optimized to support the
next-generation UltraSPARC T1. Wind River Systems is one of the
industry leaders in Device Software Optimization (DSO).
Check out the announcment, http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=3881.
Upcoming Events
IP-SOC 2006 IP
Based SoC Design Conference & Exhibition. December 6-7, "Hardware
initiatives in the Open Source Community" Fadi Azhari,
Director of OpenSPARC Marketing, Sun Microsystems Inc.Espace Congres du
World Trade Center, Grenoble, Francehttp://www.us.design-reuse.com/ipsoc2006/
Help Wanted
We continue to look
for contributors to OpenSPARC Book. If you are interested, look over
the outline at wiki.OpenSPARC.info and
start contributing. Collective help from the community will advance
the OpenSPARC Book's "publication".
Give us your
feedback! We want to improve the OpenSPARC web-site and want to hear
from you on any thoughts you may have regarding potential projects
and improvements. You can reach us at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Help us get linked!
We want to spread the word and get new members involved. Grab a
button at http://www.opensparc.net/buttons.html.
Please feel free to forward this
newsletter to all your friends and co-workers. Also, check out the
latest OpenSPARC news at www.opensparc.net.
The OpenSPARC Team |
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