Blogs

NC05Q4 :

Sun's Quarterly Network Computing Launch.

Things are about to get very interesting. Sun’s got a cool (actually CoolThreads) new technology. Here’s the announcement. But here’s the really cool part: “Plans to Open Source Processor Technology to Developer Communities.” “Open source” hardware? What’s that mean? Stay tuned …

What a day for Open Source at Sun today!  The OpenSPARC Community is now launched. Given that the UltraSPARC technology was launched nearly 10 years ago, this community is starting with an outstanding foundation of technology and expertise already. The new community starts with the blessings of none other than Bill Joy, And the FOO guy himself, Tim O'Reilly! --I don't see the t-shirt campaign ramped up yet, but the community is certain to be a hot one.  OpenSolaris Community members check it out!
 

Imagine you're the owner of a Formula 1 team. And one of your top shop designers calls you over the weekend. “I've got a new design for you. It's a street legal automobile that delivers 800 horsepower, gets 150 miles to the gallon, costs what a Toyota Prius does, can take a corner at 10g, and there's an open market for parts.”

If you're the team's CEO, you're pleased as punch – pick a remotely decent driver, and you're going to blow away your competition. If you're the team's CFO, you're pretty giddy, too – your project risk plummets (each car is normally custom built, at around $300M a pop). Your fuel-based operating expenses are radically lowered. If you're a team shareholder, you're pretty pleased, too – better performance at a lower price? Who could ask for more. Driving might be fun, too.

One of the things that cropped up in the European software patents debate at the start of the year was the issue of defining what a software patent actually is. You'd think it was easy, but it's not. Software patents sneak through by reference to the computers they actually run on (a software patent I have to hand starts "Two computers A and B each have a clipboard function..." - that's a European one, by the way). And even chip designs turn out to be a grey area.

I recently had the opportunity to meet some of the team designing the new UltraSPARC T1 processor ("Niagara") and saw first-hand what my friends up the road at Southampton University have been pointing out for years. 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.