Last year, around the time Sun introduced the innovative UltraSPARC T1 processor, we became the first major vendor to open source our processor technology. Through the OpenSPARC initiative the hardware source code of the Sun UltraSPARC T1 processor is available under an open source license. The belief is that by lowering the costs of entry to leverage a current hardware design, developers can create innovative software applications faster, and with a higher degree of hardware integration than ever before. And software developers can create highly optimized applications that are tightly integrated with the hardware, creating unique, high-value solutions for specific markets.
Yesterday, the OpenSPARC initiative marked a significant milestone as the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) became the first OpenSPARC center of excellence. The UCSC Center of Excellence has committed to several OpenSPARC projects and will include OpenSPARC in the school of engineering curriculum. Additionally, Jose Renau, UCSC assistant professor of computer engineering, will serve as an active member of the OpenSPARC community governing board. The breadth and depth of what UCSC is doing is impressive, and helps to demonstrate the school's commitment to the Open Source community. And UCSC's contributions to the OpenSPARC community will help to expand and enrich Sun's on-going efforts in support of open source SPARC. And of course, once they complete their work it will be freely available to others to review.