Author: Gareth Halfacree

Gareth Halfacree is a technology journalist and technical author best known for his work on the Raspberry Pi User Guide and an upcoming book covering the BBC’s micro:bit project. A keen open source advocate and RISC-V fan, Gareth is responsible for curating our fortnightly community round-up posts.

IBM Contributes Open-Source A2O POWER Core, Open-CE to the OpenPOWER Foundation

The OpenPOWER Foundation has announced two more IBM projects which have been moved to an open-source licence, following on the heels of opening the POWER instruction set architecture (ISA) itself. Announced this week at the OpenPOWER Summit 2020, IBM is contributing a the A2O out-of-order processor core with supporting FPGA… Read More

SiFive Announces FU740-Based RISC-V PC, Plans to Grow the RISC-V Ecosystem

RISC-V pioneer SiFive has announced its intention to encourage growth of the RISC-V developer ecosystem with the release of a ready-to-run off-the-shelf RISC-V-powered personal computer built on its FU740 processor – offering a turnkey alternative to the current raft of do-it-yourself options. The free and open-source RISC-V instruction set architecture… Read More

Lattice Semiconductor Embraces Open Hardware, Launches “Community Sourced” Portal

Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) expert Lattice Semiconductor has embraced the ethos of the open hardware community, creating a portal which lists what the company describes as “community sourced” open hardware development boards and reference designs. “In addition to proprietary boards developed by Lattice and other partners there is a broad… Read More

DIN SPEC 3105, Published Under an Open Licence, “Writes a New Chapter” for Open Hardware

The German Institute for Standardisation (Deutsches Institut für Normung, DIN) has published a formal specification, DIN SPEC 3105, for open source hardware documentation – and the specification itself is open, and the first to be published under a Creative Commons licence. Released as part of a pilot program which sees… Read More

EDeA Project Aims to Make Sharing, Using KiCad “Subcircuits” as Easy as Possible

KiCad users may soon be able to easily share, download, and assemble subcircuits into open-hardware projects thanks to a new initiative dubbed EdeA. “There is a growing Open Hardware movement, a diverse bunch of people with intimidating skill levels, and they are reimplementing the wheel over and over,” explains pseudonymous… Read More

Microchip Opens Orders for RISC-V-Powered, Linux-Capable PolarFire SoC Icicle Board

Microchip has opened orders for its PolarFire SoC Icicle development board, offering end-users the first access to its combined RISC-V and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) system-on-chip – and the ability to build a Linux-capable RISC-V system. Announced late last year, the PolarFire SoC combines Microchip’s PolarFire family of low-power FPGAs… Read More

QuickLogic Launches QuickFeather Fully-Open FPGA Dev Board Crowdfunder

QuickLogic has officially launched the a crowdfunding campaign for the QuickFeather, a Feather-compatible fully-open microcontroller and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development board – and AB Open is proud to be its first backer. The QuickFeather – named for its use of the Feather form factor, a gumstick variant designed for… Read More

OpenPOWER Releases BlueGene/Q’s A2I POWER Core As Free and Open Source Silicon

The OpenPOWER Foundation has announced the release of another core design, A2I POWER, under permissive licensing – part of the Foundation’s move to offer an alternative to increasingly popular free and open source silicon efforts like RISC-V. The OpenPOWER Foundation moved to a permissive, open release approach back in… Read More

CRU: Ten Years of OSHUG, OpenHW Group Membership, RISC-V Trace, and More

Last month marks the tenth anniversary of the inaugural meeting of the Open Source Hardware User Group (OSHUG). AB Open’s Andrew Back recalls the founding of OSHUG: “The nascent open hardware movement had started to gather momentum and in December 2009, Nesta, the UK based charity and innovation… Read More

AB Open Joins OpenHW Group to Help Grow The Open Hardware Ecosystem

AB Open is proud to announce its membership of OpenHW Group, a not-for-profit organisation founded to provide an infrastructure for open hardware development with a focus on free and open source silicon, tools, and related software. Founded in June 2019, OpenHW Group aims to encourage adoption of free and open… Read More

The Eclipse Foundation Announces a Move to Europe to Boost Growth

The Eclipse Foundation, which acts as a not-for-profit steward of the Eclipse open source software development community working on projects as diverse as edge computing, artificial intelligence, and free and open source silicon, has announced it is moving to Europe – a move which it says will enable it to… Read More

CERN-OHL v 2.0 Licensed Design by Sam Smith

CERN Launches Open Hardware Licence 2.0 in Reciprocal and Permissive Variants

CERN has officially released version 2.0 of its eponymous Open Hardware Licence (CERN-OHL), designed to simplify the language and make it easier to understand as well as broadening its applicability and introducing three variants for specific requirements. “The CERN-OHL is to hardware what the free and open-source licences are to… Read More