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Sun Microsystems is hoping to get its UltraSparc T1 chip, formerly
codenamed Niagara, noticed by more than just its installed Sparc user
base via a new program dubbed OpenSparc. The ultimate aim is to have
third parties improve on the processor's design and produce their own
UltraSparc T1-based chips, according to Sun executives.
Sun Microsystems is hoping to get its UltraSparc T1 chip, formerly
codenamed Niagara, noticed by more than just its installed Sparc user
base via a new program dubbed OpenSparc. The ultimate aim is to have
third parties improve on the processor's design and produce their own
UltraSparc T1-based chips, according to Sun executives.
Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and chief
executive officer, Tuesday took the wraps off the OpenSparc project, a
Sun program to publish specifications for the UltraSparc T1 chip. The
move not only builds on Sun's commitment to open up its products but
will hopefully generate more revenue for the company by creating more
markets for the multicore, multithreaded 64-bit chip and related
software and services, he said.
McNealy made the announcement in New York
where Sun launched the first UltraSparc T1-based servers, the Sun Fire
T1000 and T2000. "This is going to bend a lot of brains," he said.
"It's all about building community."
Sun positioned Tuesday's OpenSparc
announcement as "open sourcing UltraSparc T1," referring to the chip's
design specifications as "hardware source code." On its Web site, Sun
defines open sourcing hardware as "providing free and open tools that
are essential components to developing a new chip."
Details on the OpenSparc project will be
forthcoming later, according to McNealy. "We want to get the right
model in terms of governance and implementation," he said.
The OpenSparc project is set to go live in
the first quarter of 2006, probably in March, according to information
on Sun's Web site. The company initially intends to publish
specifications for the UltraSparc T1 design point which are likely to
include the source of the design expressed in the Verilog verification
suite and simulation models, the UltraSparc Architecture 2005 ISA or
instruction set architecture and a port to Sun's Solaris operating
system. Sun expects to release the specifications under an open-source
license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), according to
McNealy.
McNealy Tuesday described his dream scenario
for the OpenSparc project. Five to ten different companies would form
and each work on improving the UltraSparc T1 specifications and perhaps
build their own implementations of the Sun chips, he said. "Their exit
strategy would be to be acquired by Sun," McNealy added. This model has
worked successfully for Sun in the past, McNealy noted, pointing to the
company's acquisition of Afara Websystems in July 2002. Afara developed
Sparc-based microprocessor technology which post-purchase Sun then used
in the development of the UltraSparc T1 chip.
McNealy also hopes software developers will
use the UltraSparc T1 specifications to create applications more
tightly bound to the hardware and its multithreading capabilities. Both
Sun executives and third-party software vendors maintained during the
UltraSparc T1 server launch that most applications can run optimally
without modification on systems powered by the Sun chip. However, some
analysts have expressed concerns over how much work third-party
application developers may have to do to make their software run fully
optimized on the new Sun servers.
Sun is already actively working with Linux
distribution vendor Red Hat to port Linux to servers based on
UltraSparc T1, according to McNealy.
Sun has been hard at work opening up its own
core software for some time. The company released an open-source
version of its Solaris operating system, OpenSolaris, in June. Last
week, Sun announced free distribution of its middleware, management and
Java development tools as way to attract developers to try out the
software.
On the hardware front, Sun established Sparc
International back in 1989 to promote the Sparc architecture and
licensed its chip design to a number of vendors including Fujitsu Ltd.
Sun and the Japanese company announced plans last year to develop a new
range of Sparc-based systems called the Advanced Product Line (APL).
Currently, Sun is developing an OpenSparc community Web site at http://www.opensparc.net.
Read original article at: http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1166498229;fp;16;fpid;0
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