Re: [oc] Inquiry

[John Dalton <john.dalton@bigfoot.com>]

> I can't say that I agree about the quality of the cores on opencores.

I'm pleased to hear someone say this.


> *  First off, when you do a chip, any licence requiring you to expose
> the source code is a non-starter.  If you are a chip vendor, the code
> is your company's commercial value, and can be worth tens or millions
> of dollars.  Giving it away is foolish.

That is a decision any business user will have to make: Is the cost of the
license conditions worth it?


> *  Secondly, supposing you wanted to release your FPGA's source code.
> How would you do it?

I would suggest putting the code on a web site, and providing the
user with a URL.  Any of your other suggestions would also be valid.


> And what would your customer do with it?

Just one example, if the device is a computer peripheral, the customer
might use the source code as an information source to write a device
driver for the peripheral.


> I suspect that he would think you were a lunatic if you gave him several
> directories of raw Verilog on a floppy.

Some might think this.  Others would be thankful that they can verify
that the design is bug free, easily get interfacing information,
do complete system/board level simulations and so on.


> *  Since there are several different licences in use, you have to
> become a legal expert in the detailed restrictions of each type of
> licence.

That is why designers should try to stick to either a BSD license
or a GPL license and why each designer should not write their
own license.


> *  Finally, even if you did want to be a good doobie and release the
> GPLedsource, how would you -- as a working engineer -- ever explain
> that to your boss?  Telling anybody in the management line that you
> want to release the source code for your chip would be professional
> suicide.  

Maybe.  At least one of my clients seems amiable to releasing
code under the GPL.  You never know until you ask.  Also there
are engineers out there who have managed to arrange things so they
own at least some of the code they produce.  All these small
contributions add up to make a larger body of useful code, which
will hopefully expand over time.

Maybe it is a job for Opencores, to bit by bit change this culture
of secrecy?  It's taken almost 20 years for the GPL to be come 'mainstream'
in the software industry.


> They may indeed be using the cores in their work, for all I
> know.  But if they do, they will never admit it because it opens up
> Pandora's box of licencing issues.

If they do this they are absolutely NUTS.  Because a core is GPLd, it does
not mean the author relinquishes ownership.  If a designer gets caught
breaking license conditions, they expose themselves/employer to a damages
claim, or risk being forced to release their own source code to comply
with license conditions.  Yes, this is a 'worst case' scenario (from the
violator's point of view), but it is theoretically possible.  Designers
are better not to use a core if they are not prepared to follow the licensing
conditions.


> However, the GPL makes it difficult to build a business on open source
> code.

Maybe the author of the code isn't interested in building a business?
There are other reasons for doing things in life.


I'm not claiming to disprove anything you have said.  For someone who
wants to use opencores in their business, I think much of what you
said is true.

I guess the main point I am trying to get across is that I believe that
Opencores primary purpose should not be to provide zero-cost cores
for businesses, otherwise it just becomes 'another card in the pack'.
Plenty of places already exist from which business users can get cores.
I would advocate that Opencores should exist to provide cores to
members of the Opencores community.  If some of these community
members happen to be businesses, great, but the business point of view
should not dominate or set the direction of Opencores.  Of course
this is MY opinion, so you are free to argue against it.

Regards
John
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