IBM VC calls for 'open' hardware

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Reply-To: <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2005 21:16:51 -0700
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] IBM VC calls for 'open' hardware

IBM VC calls for 'open' hardware

Richard Goering
  (04/08/2005 12:53 AM EDT)
  URL:  <http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=160502705>

  MONTEREY, Calif. ‹ A revolution is coming to the electronics industry,
says Juan-Antonio Carballo, partner in IBM's venture capital group ‹
and it's based on "open" hardware that will foster the kind of
collaborative effort that Linux has brought to software.

  Carballo presented his argument before a somewhat skeptical audience
at the Electronic Design Processes (EDP) workshop Thursday (April 7).
But Carballo insisted that various kinds of "openness," including
collaborative efforts and open-source models, will change the world of
system-on-chip (SoC) venture financing.

  "There's a pretty important wave coming in our industry that most of
us are not noticing, and it could change it completely," said Carballo,
who happens to be an avid surfer. "The open-source model is quickly
extending from software to hardware, and it will provide a similar
swell of collaborative innovation."

  The word "open" has various meanings with respect to hardware and
silicon intellectual property (IP), he said. At one level, it could
mean the details can be viewed, but not altered. It might mean the
hardware can be used for free in a design that can be sold. Or it might
mean that a community of users can modify details, so long as they
donate the modifications.

  Thus, for Carballo, the word "open" includes but is not limited to the
classical definition of open source, in which source is freely
available and a community of users can contribute modifications. He
also noted that "open" doesn't necessarily mean free of charge.

  The dilemma, he said, is that companies need to minimize risk, and IP
often comes from small, creative companies. There is risk in open
silicon IP. An IP valuation methodology is thus going to be crucial for
the open hardware effort, Carballo noted.

  Carballo argued that open hardware produces a better return on
investment. If a company is in an open standards environment, he said,
time to profit goes down. And he suggested that giving away IP or tools
for free, even for a limited time, could create a "huge incentive."

  If everything is open and given away, asked one audience member, how
will anyone make money?

  "That's a different talk," Carballo said. "But think about how people
are making money on Linux. It's in value-added stuff. Maybe you can
make money on the chip, or on services around the core."

  Carballo pointed to www.power.org as an example of the kind of
collaboration he's talking about. Power.org claims to represent a
worldwide community of developers, tool providers, and manufacturers
who are collaborating on industry standards and delivering applications
based on IBM's Power Architecture technology.

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