Open Source Engineering

At DAC 2024, Efabless celebrated a milestone of 40 commercial companies designed chips using its chipIgnite and Google-sponsored OpenMPW programme. Of these, some are ready for production volumes, the majority are at the prototype/proof of concept stage, said CEO, Michael Wishart. The platform allows start-ups and smaller companies to prototype designs and innovate without having to buy a license, he ...

There are ways to protect data and digital identity, says Dean Zwarts, but they rely on the security of software and installed systems. Cybercriminals exploit the multiple vulnerabilities in the smart IoT devices in homes. Using smart devices, whether voice-controlled speakers, smart doorbells or light switches, hackers can access entire networks by just connecting to one system; sometimes without requiring ...

RS has had its environmental sensor development kit (ESDK) certified by the Open-Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which means the kit can now carry the OSHW logo. “The aims of the OSHWA are to foster technological knowledge and encourage research that is accessible, collaborative and respects user freedom,” according to RS. “OSHWA certification recognises that the kit meets a uniform and ...

Open-source licencing needs a re-think in the face of intellectual property abuse, according to open-source advocate Josef Prusa, founder of 3D printer maker Prusa Research (pictured), which publishes full design files for its products. While Prusa concentrates on the stifling effect of open-source leeches on innovation in the 3D printer world, his comments are applicable more broadly. In an open ...

RISC-V simulation company Imperas Software has announced a partnership with Breker Verification Systems, a provider of test content synthesis for verification environments, to develop interfaces and standards to unify functional verification design flows. “RISC-V represents an inflection point for semiconductor verification as the design freedoms provided by the open instruction set architecture means an assumption of the responsibility of the ...

Lynx Software Technologies is claiming industry’s first unikernel to be Posix compatible and available for commercial mission-critical use. Called LynxElement, it will be offered as part of the for company’s Mosa.ic portfolio, and is said to have a small attack surface to improve security and certifyability in aircraft systems, autonomous vehicles and critical infrastructure. The initial focus is centred on ...

The European Space Agency has qualified the RTEMS open-source real-time operating system for safety-critical multi-processing in satellites. Railway, medical and automotive sectors could benefit. “ESA certified RTEMS in the symmetric multiprocessing configuration for Criticality Category C and D,” said German RTEMS support company Embedded Brains. “This means that safety-critical functions can now also be executed on modern multicore processors that ...

Raspberry Pi OS, the custom operating system for Raspberry Pis, has had a major upgrade. It is now based on Debian Bullseye, Linux which has replaced two year old Debian Buster. “Debian Bullseye has relatively few major changes which are visible to users,” according to Raspberry Pi. “There are some under-the-hood changes to file systems and printing, but most of ...

Facebook has open-sourced the precision PCIe timing card it created for its servers. It combines frequencies from a miniature atomic clock and GPS receiver, both on the card, with FPGA-based qualification that combines the two. The local clock is there for when satellite signals are not available, or are unreliable – for example during a spoofing attack. With it, “anyone ...

SBC development kits available from Farnell now include the OrangeCrab r0.2 open-source FPGA development board from Good Stuff Department, the company responsible for open-source hardware, including the ArticKoala and ButterStick boards. This latest SBC is a xlim, compact Adafruit Feather form factor, measuring 22.86mm x 50.8mm. Despite its size, says the company, it can be used as to prototype custom SoC designs. It ...