Re: [oc] Jim Turley's article at Embedded.com

[Pablo Bleyer Kocik <pbleyer@embedded.cl>]

  I think that what we are really missing is coherency. From the outside 
opencores is just a bunch of  geeks coming and going and who have fun 
playing with HDL code. All the other sites related to open hardware "feel" 
just the same. Yes, Damjan's vision for the "Opencores Organization" is 
lacking the appearance of "Professional Services" that a good marketing 
department can create and that serious businesses can rely on. Again, maybe 
an "Open Hardware Consortium" with open standards and all that stuff is 
what we need, though I doubt if such an organization is possible (remember 
open-hardware.org?)

  However... I strongly believe in the "if you build it, they will come" 
method of doing things. Opencores and other sites are coming to a point of 
having great added value, whose work can be offered in the commercial arena 
for the organization's sake or even member profit if the "product" is 
presented adequately (just check out the Simputer and Electric projects 
also in the news these days). If we could only unite all this efforts under 
one wing...

  IMHO, for a successful opencores venture some things need to be done and 
others just need to be completed:
- Coherent architecture, not only in the backbone (eg Wishbone) but also in 
model specification and interfacing (eg parameters, scalability, etc.).
- Possibility to deliver proven designs (ie, one that has been verified on 
real hardware with extensive field testing).
- Development and manufacturing tool integration (chip vendors' tools, 
other open and closed EDA software -- I am thinking specially in an 
automatic, homogeneous compiling and building process).
- Offer development kits bundles (hdl, hardware and software), perhaps in 
association with companies like Burch ED or Xess (ie, the CDROM alone is 
not enough).

  Well, that is the humble opinion of somebody without enough time to be an 
active developer in the opencores project and who regrets it.

At 10:38 PM 04-06-2002 +0200, you wrote:
>5) Allow companies to put ads on opencores site whenever they use an IP core
>in their product (this translates into benefits for both a company and gives
>a reference for our IP core)?

  Which companies out there are using IP from opencores? A database like 
that would be a nice way of sponsorship.

  Cheers.
--
PabloBleyerKocik/
  pbleyer       /"Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air;
   @embedded.cl/ Hungry clouds swag on the deep" — William Blake

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