Aug
21
Volume 1, Issue 3 August, 2006
This past month, OpenSPARC made its debut at the Design Automation Conference 2006 (http://www.dac.com) in San Francisco. Here the OpenSPARC team demonstrated the complete Verilog verification of the OpenSPARC T1 using a beta version of Synopsys' VCS running with Solaris 10 on Sun's latest two-socket AMD Opteron-based Ultra 40 workstation. While most attendees were familiar with the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, few realized they could download the Verilog RTL code that are the heart of these systems.
Also at the Design Automation Conference 2006, David Weaver talked about the opportunities of the OpenSPARC initiative at the Synopsys/Sun University Reception and Dwayne Lee hosted a birds-of-a-feather session discussing the topic "Are Open Source Tools Ready for Open Source Hardware Designs?"
The word is getting out, but we need your help to spread it further. We can all benefit from open discussions and development around such a "cool" design. Remember, download your button and spread the word about http://www.opensparc.net.
Announcements
New Web Site Look - This month we moved the main OpenSPARC web site to a new location. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and please bear with us as we work out all the details of cross linking and such. We think you will be pleased with the new look and feel of the web site.
OpenSPARC T1 Version 1.2 Released - In version 1.2 the full source code for the SPARC Architectural Model (SAM) and Legion simulators is available. SAM is a full system simulator useful for software bring-up on modified implementations. Legion is a fast instruction accurate simulator which provides a rapid means of developing and testing software functionality in absence of real hardware. Download them now from http://www.opensparc.net.
OpenSPARC Governance Board - We have closed the nominations to the OpenSPARC governance board and have received an industry wide selection of nominees. We are in the process of contacting those nominated individuals to make sure they wish to participate on the OpenSPARC governance board. In next month's community threads newsletter we will publish the names of the individuals on our first governance board.
Micro-Architecture Specification for OpenSPARC T1 - The OpenSPARC T1 Micro Architecture Specification has been released on http://www.opensparc.net. This specification includes detailed functional descriptions of the OpenSPARC T1 processor components including detailed block diagrams and signal lists of each component.
Open Boot PROM Source Availability - Released this month on the OpenSPARC download web-site is source code for the open boot PROM. Please note that this source code requires the latest version of the OpenSPARC T1 hypervisor code.
OpenSPARC Design/Verification Packages for x86 Versions of Solaris and Linux - Support for x86 versions using Solaris 10 or Linux are now available for design/verification of the OpenSPARC T1 RTL. See http://www.opensparc.net for specific details and limitations.
Upcoming Events
HOT CHIPS 18 - A Symposium on High Performance Chips
August 20-22
Stanford University, Stanford, California
CDNLive! Silicon Valley 2006
September 12-14
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California
Denali MemCon 2006
September 12-14
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California
CANDE 2006 Workshop - Computer-Aided Network Design
September 21-23
Delta Whistler Village Suites Hotel, Whistler, British Columbia
Help Wanted
We continue to look for contributors to OpenSPARC Book. If you are interested, look over the outline at http://wiki.opensparc.info. 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 opensparc-interest@sun.com.
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
[ T: OpenSPARC ]
This past month, OpenSPARC made its debut at the Design Automation Conference 2006 (http://www.dac.com) in San Francisco. Here the OpenSPARC team demonstrated the complete Verilog verification of the OpenSPARC T1 using a beta version of Synopsys' VCS running with Solaris 10 on Sun's latest two-socket AMD Opteron-based Ultra 40 workstation. While most attendees were familiar with the Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, few realized they could download the Verilog RTL code that are the heart of these systems.
Also at the Design Automation Conference 2006, David Weaver talked about the opportunities of the OpenSPARC initiative at the Synopsys/Sun University Reception and Dwayne Lee hosted a birds-of-a-feather session discussing the topic "Are Open Source Tools Ready for Open Source Hardware Designs?"
The word is getting out, but we need your help to spread it further. We can all benefit from open discussions and development around such a "cool" design. Remember, download your button and spread the word about http://www.opensparc.net.
Announcements
New Web Site Look - This month we moved the main OpenSPARC web site to a new location. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and please bear with us as we work out all the details of cross linking and such. We think you will be pleased with the new look and feel of the web site.
OpenSPARC T1 Version 1.2 Released - In version 1.2 the full source code for the SPARC Architectural Model (SAM) and Legion simulators is available. SAM is a full system simulator useful for software bring-up on modified implementations. Legion is a fast instruction accurate simulator which provides a rapid means of developing and testing software functionality in absence of real hardware. Download them now from http://www.opensparc.net.
OpenSPARC Governance Board - We have closed the nominations to the OpenSPARC governance board and have received an industry wide selection of nominees. We are in the process of contacting those nominated individuals to make sure they wish to participate on the OpenSPARC governance board. In next month's community threads newsletter we will publish the names of the individuals on our first governance board.
Micro-Architecture Specification for OpenSPARC T1 - The OpenSPARC T1 Micro Architecture Specification has been released on http://www.opensparc.net. This specification includes detailed functional descriptions of the OpenSPARC T1 processor components including detailed block diagrams and signal lists of each component.
Open Boot PROM Source Availability - Released this month on the OpenSPARC download web-site is source code for the open boot PROM. Please note that this source code requires the latest version of the OpenSPARC T1 hypervisor code.
OpenSPARC Design/Verification Packages for x86 Versions of Solaris and Linux - Support for x86 versions using Solaris 10 or Linux are now available for design/verification of the OpenSPARC T1 RTL. See http://www.opensparc.net for specific details and limitations.
Upcoming Events
HOT CHIPS 18 - A Symposium on High Performance Chips
August 20-22
Stanford University, Stanford, California
CDNLive! Silicon Valley 2006
September 12-14
San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California
Denali MemCon 2006
September 12-14
Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California
CANDE 2006 Workshop - Computer-Aided Network Design
September 21-23
Delta Whistler Village Suites Hotel, Whistler, British Columbia
Help Wanted
We continue to look for contributors to OpenSPARC Book. If you are interested, look over the outline at http://wiki.opensparc.info. 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 opensparc-interest@sun.com.
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
[ T: OpenSPARC ]
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