Open Sparc

URL = http://www.opensparc.net/

Description

"OpenSPARC.net is the genesis of a vision by engineers, technologists, evangelists, and executives at Sun Microsystems, Inc. to create a larger community where open conversations and collaborative development projects spawn dramatic innovations around chip design. Individual programmers as well as representatives from Universities, industry associations, supporting software companies, foundries, entrepreneurs, large corporations and visionaries have already begun to participate in this expanded community.

SPARC stands for Scalable Processor ARchitecture. The technology is based on pioneering research around RISC at the University of California, Berkeley. It has been the basis of Sun's premiere line of servers since its introduction the Sun 4/260 and 4/280, in mid-1987 and then as the Campus-1 "pizza box" in 1989. That year, Sun transferred the ownership of the SPARC specifications to SPARC International, who continues to license the technology and manage compliance testing for the trademark today. SPARC has had a long history of openness. Take a look at Dawn of OpenSPARC. " (http://www.opensparc.net/about.html)