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Volume 2, Issue 2 March, 2007
Continuing with our plan to interview
each OpenSPARC Board member, in this issue of OpenSPARC Community
Threads we interview Nathan Brookwood.
Volume 2, Issue 2 March, 2007
Continuing with our plan to interview
each OpenSPARC Board member, in this issue of OpenSPARC Community
Threads we interview Nathan Brookwood.
Nathan Brookwood is the Principal
Analyst at Insight 64, a leading information technology research and
analysis company. Nathan's career in information technology industry
spans decades. He has worked on the development of an array of
hardware and software systems, as well as product and strategic
marketing efforts. In 1998, Nathan founded Insight 64, where he
works with clients who value his unique blend of marketing and
technology skill of the semiconductor market and allied systems
markets.
He has a long history of involvement
with SPARC technology having been present in 1987 launch of the
Sun-4, Sun's first SPARC-based system, and the 1989
introduction of the first SPARCstations. He has been following SPARC
ever since, and was a real believer in the Throughput Computing"
concept from the first time Sun Microsystems talked to him about it.
Nathan has a Bachelor of Engineering
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and an Masters
of Business Administration from Harvard University.
CT: Why is
an industry analyst interested in OpenSPARC?
Nathan: I'm
interested in new and different things. Analysts
often sit on the sidelines and act as observers, but I felt it would
be appropriate for me to get involved and contribute some of my time
to the community.
CT: What
do you see as the goals and objectives for OpenSPARC?
Nathan: The
OpenSPARC Governance Board needs to figure out how an open hardware
source program differs from the traditional open source software
concepts. Then we need to craft the charter and procedures to allow
the community to both draw from and contribute to on-going
development. The issues are very subtle, to say the least.
CT: Where do you see OpenSPARC headed?
Nathan:
Just as the open-source aspect
of Linux allowed that operating system to gain a wide following in
computer education around the world, I would hope that the OpenSPARC
program gives future computer architects a real-world perspective on
MPU architecture.
CT: Where will OpenSPARC be five years from now?
Nathan: If we're successful, we will see
pieces of OpenSPARC in a variety of derivative CPUs in a variety of
applications.
CT: What is one key accomplishment you would like to see this
year?
Nathan: Get the charter and governance
procedures in place. In theory, the initial OGB goes out of business
once the mechanism for a more democratically constituted board is put
in place. Maybe we'll have an election where voters will have to dip
their fingers in a jar of purple ink.
CT: Are there any improvements you would like to see with the
OpenSPARC initiative?
Nathan: One step at a time. I'm sure the initiative will evolve in
directions that are hard to foresee.
When Nathan isn't forecasting the
trends and directions of our information technology industry, he can
be found watching the news and politics events of the world unfold or
working crossword puzzles.
Announcements
Polaris Microelectronics Corporation Tape Out Polaris
Micro has taped out a single core version of OpenSPARC this past
February. Polaris Micro plans to use their single core OpenSPARC
processor for future firmware and system development.
Congratulations Polaris Micro!
University of California, Santa Cruz OpenSPARC Center of
Excellence Sun Microsystems has established a Center of
Excellence at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), that
will focus on the OpenSPARC initiative. This Center of Excellence
establishes a collaborative partnership between Sun and UCSC faculty
who are working with the OpenSPARC community and promoting OpenSPARC
in academia and research.
OpenSPARC Expert
Exchange On January 31st
the first OpenSPARC Expert Exchange even was held. Over 50
individuals participated in this web hosted event, representing a
diverse audience University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University,
EDS, AT&T, and Fujitsu. During this event we had the opportunity
to answer 29 questions posed by our audience.
OpenSPARC at Upcoming Multicore Expo Next month OpenSPARC
will be hosting a keynote address and two breakout sessions at the
upcoming Multicore Expo 2007. Rick Hetherington, Chief Architect at
Sun Microsystems, will present one of the keynote addresses titled
Multicore 'Explo' is a More Fitting Name' on the explosion of
multicore designs. In one of the conference sessions, Durgam Vahia,
OpenSPARC Engineering at Sun Microsystems, will present Scaling
Down from Chip Multicore to Single Core The OpenSPARC T1
Experience. In another session Fadi Azhari, Director OpenSPARC
Marketing at Sun Microsystems, will present Open Source Hardware
Myth becomes Reality an update on the OpenSPARC experience after
one year.
This conference will be held March 27th to 29th
at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California.
Please join us and hear the successes of OpenSPARC at our first
anniversary and where OpenSPARC is headed.
OpenSPARC Board
Meeting Update This past
December the first OpenSPARC board meeting was held. During this
meeting the board discussed OpenSPARC trademark usage, version
controlof the OpenSPARC source, and who should constitute a voting
member. You can view the meeting minutes and subscribe to the
OpenSPARC Governing Board mailing list through the OpenSPARC web-site
(www.opensparc.net).
Latest
OpenSPARC Website Postings
The OpenSPARC website has two recent postings our readers may be
interested in viewing. The first is the ISSCC 2007 presentation on
Niagara2 An 8-core, 64-thread, power efficient SPARC SoC
(Niagara2) available at
http://www.opensparc.net/publications/presentations/isscc-2007-an-8-core-64-thread-64-bit-power-efficient-sparc-soc-niagara2.html.
The
second is the DesignCon 2007 presentation on UltraSPARC Processor
Emulation Verification: Getting SW/HW right the first time
available at
http://www.opensparc.net/publications/presentations/ultrasparc-processor-emulation-verification-getting-sw/hw-right-the-first-time.html.
Upcoming Events
Multicore Expo
2007
March 27-29
Santa Clara Convention Center
Santa Clara, California
http://www.multicore-expo.com/
Help Wanted
We continue to
look for contributors to OpenSPARC Book. If you are interested, look
over the outline at wiki.opensparc.net 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 http://www.opensparc.net.
The OpenSPARC Team
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