OpenSPARC.net is a place where people come to discuss ideas, share code and research, and innovate around the 64-bit, 32 thread code base originally contributed by Sun Microsystems. By providing this source code and its intellectual property as a base -- at no cost - we expect to significantly expand participation in processor architecture development and application design.

The founding goals for this project are as follows:

• To eliminate barriers to the next big build-out of the Internet.
• To improve collaboration and cooperation among hardware designers.
• To enable community members to build on proven technology at a markedly lower cost.
• To encourage innovation.
• To foster bringing bold new products to market.

This community is open to all individuals and organizations that hold similar interests. We encourage the community members to create new projects, expand on multi-threaded designs, and ultimately to create new chips that address growing industry needs. We expect community members to agree to the principles outlined below:

• Maintain Focus: Each member and project is dedicated to the open and principled discussion of the direction, nature, and use of chip designs as they evolve from the source code contributed to this site.
• Freedom of Speech: To the extent it does not injure others and is consistent with these guiding principles, any content is welcome in the community.
• Equal Rights and Opportunities: All community projects and members--whether companies, organizations, or individuals--are treated equally.
• Equal Participation: All who embrace these guiding principles are welcome to join the community.
• Fair Processes: Community activities treat all community members and projects fairly and without discrimination.
• Recombination: Wherever possible, and in addition to the requirements of the GPLv2 license that applies to the original source code, contributions of source code, intellectual property, and copyrighted materials should be made available for others to build upon and share.
• Independence: Decisions within the OpenSPARC project will be made independently from those concerning Sun's business, by an elected governing board. While Sun's management controls the business aspects of the UltraSPARC T1 processor design within its own Niagara product and its future implementations, it will not exert undue influence within the OpenSPARC community.