Sun: Open Source Expands to Silicon

Last week Sun expanded the list of software it was turning over to the open source community, building on this past summer's OpenSolaris unveiling. Now, the company's planning to release the Verilog source code to its UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor (the press release is here, and Ars Technica's take is here)! I confess I fail to clearly see the wisdom behind this move. Is Sun so desperate to create (or maybe I should say resurrect) a critical mass of SPARC-tailored code that it's willing to seed the industry by giving away the silicon 'engine'? Does this move represent a defocus of corporate backing for SPARC in favour of AMD's Opteron? Or will a future perusal of the fine print leave me underwhelmed, after being initially enamoured with the high-level hype? Readers, what do you say?