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CHIPS Alliance Brings Powerful Players into Open Source Hardware Collaboration

Will open source hardware become as ubiquitous as open-source software, such as Linux and Android?

allaboutcircuits.com, Jul. 09, 2019 – 

Linux changed the world with its open approach to operating systems. The Linux Foundation has now partnered with a new initiative, CHIPS Alliance, to bring the same open source ethos to hardware design.

All About Circuits had a chance to speak to Ted Marena, Interim Director of CHIPS Alliance, about CHIPS Alliance, its mission, and its inaugural event this June, which was hosted by Linux, itself.

What Is CHIPS Alliance?

The mission of the CHIPS Alliance is, in its own words, "to harnesses the energy of open source collaboration to accelerate hardware development". The acronym "CHIPS" breaks down to Common Hardware for Interfaces, Processors, and Systems.

It is expected that by "creating an open and collaborative environment," CHIPS Alliance can hope to slash development costs for everyone. A major goal is for many to work together to develop open source designs for devices like CPUs, as well as other blocks of complex intellectual property. The collaboration will also give rise to open source hardware and software tools.

The board of directors for the organization includes Western Digital, Google, Esperanto Technologies, and SiFive–other full members include Antmicro, Imperas Software, and Metrics Technologies.

Marena explains it like this: "What CHIPS Alliance does is collaboratively create hardware and open source development tools for the masses. The idea is, instead of each individual company having to make a processor or embedded controller, we all collaborate together. Make one, verify it, validate it, put it on the shelf, and then–whenever we need it–we just go and grab it."

After all, why should everyone, Marena argues, make their own designs separately?

"We want to harness the energy of the open source community for hardware as it has done for Linux and other software," Marena says.

As Dr. Yunsup Leeco-founder and CTO, SiFive decries, "Semiconductor design starts have evaporated due to the skyrocketing cost of building a custom SoC. A healthy, vibrant semiconductor industry needs a significant number of design starts, and the CHIPS Alliance will fill this need."

Google, too, has signed up for the cause. According to Google Cloud's Senior Director of Technical Infrastructure, Dr. Amir Salek, "We are entering a new golden age of computer architecture highlighted by accelerators, rapid hardware development and open source architecture and implementations. Google is committed to fostering an open community of collaboration and innovation in both hardware and software. The CHIPS Alliance will provide the support and framework needed to nurture a vibrant open source hardware ecosystem for high-quality, well-verified and documented components to accelerate and simplify chip design."

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