Re: [f-cpu] f-cpu stories/open collector

[Yann Guidon <whygee@f-cpu.org>]

hi !

Graham Seaman wrote:
> On Fri, 25 May 2001, Graham Seaman wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I put a couple of f-cpu stories on OpenCollector.
> Replying to myself here since I lost Yann's reply....
you naughty boy :-)

> Would anyone care to answer Ales Hvezda's comment?
> http://opencollector.org/cgi-bin/news/more.pl?story=990830317&display=threaded

adding to the previous comments :

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> For a design to be truely free (IMHO), all aspects (especially the tools),
> need to be free. Relying on charity of corperations will only go so far. :-(

sure. The F-CPU project founders were very concerned by the freedom and how to keep the project free. Unfortunately, the reality, as we experience it for a few years, is not as ideal as we tought. Either we make compromises (very cautiously, of course !), or we never do anything. F-CPU is almost 3 years old and we have only a handful of VHDL files :-(

> Wouldn't it make sense for people to focus on writing the tools first,
> before worry about doing designs.

it feels like shooting a moving target...
As designs are getting larger and denser, we can't keep up with the technology
as a small core team.
Speaking about the F-CPU project, it is not its goal to design the tools, BTW.
The goal is explicitely to design a CPU family and i think that even the project
of setting up an EDA server is out of the scope of the F-CPU. It already eats up
all my time and my contribution to the F-CPU has dramatically dropped.

> Maybe for the meantime, the proposed idea is the only way to get going,
> but in the long run free tools have to be developed and matured.

You understand the situation well. F-CPU is blocked by the tools. It encourages
and wants to use GPL'd tools but it can't. We can't stay blocked all the time,
so the project of setting up a dedicated server is a compromise. The real question
is not only about GPL'd tools, it's most importantly : how to design freely ?
The server will allow contributors to participate without having to solve all
the installation problems, licence problems and ressource problems. If a larger
community of developers can use common tools, they can have better results.

> [free FPGA etc.]

yeah, it is really a cool idea, in theory. I would enjoy using such a "tool".
However, my job at META taught me that the number of patents in this field is
so high that making our own is probably impossible, unless it is done in China
or Russia. The patent "wars" are completely insane in that branch. Even the
"wheel" is covered by hundreds of patents...

I hope that we will find short term solutions,
while still encouraging "long term" efforts.

Ok, i started the server idea. I don't want to manage everything
because i don't have any free time left.

Now, what has become of the Free Hardware Foundation idea ?
A FHF (or FHWF) is really a must-have because our situation is difficult.

YG
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If you have comments, post them on the opencollector site.

> Graham
WHYGEE
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