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Well (author here) - this is a private project - typically such a project would be very propriety - people don't get to show their work. But I'm looking to fin

Well (author here) - this is a private project - typically such a project would be very propriety - people don't get to show their work. But I'm looking to find someone to build this thing, it's been a while since I last built chips (last CPU I helped design never saw the light of day due to reason that had little to do with how well it worked). So I need a way to show it off, show it's real. So GPLing it is a great way to do that - as is showing up on HN (thanks to whoever posted this :-). In practice the RTL level design of a processor is only a part of making a real processor - a real VRoom! would likely have hand built ALUs, shifters, caches, register files etc those things are all in the RTL at a high level but are really different IP - likely they'd be entangled with GPL and a manufacturer might feel that to be an issue. However I'm happy to dual license (I want to get it built, and maybe get paid to do it). Also about half the companies building RISCVs are in China (I've been building open source hardware in China for a decade or so now, so I know there's lots of smart people there) - they have a real problem (in the West) building something like this - all the rumors about supply chain/etc stuff - having an open sourced GPL'd reference that's cycle accurate is a way help build confidence.

Taniwha 5y ago
One other comment about why GPLing something is important for some like me - publishing my 'secrets' are a great way to turn them into "prior art" - you read it here first, you can't patent it now - I can protect my ideas from becoming part of someone else's protected IP by publishing it. I spent a few years working on an x86 clone, I had maybe 10 (now expired) patents on how to get around stupidly obvious things that Intel had patented - (or around ways to get around ways to get around In tel that other's had patented) - frankly from a technical POV it was all a lot of BS, including my patents
- webmaven 5y ago
  > One other comment about why GPLing something is important for some like me - publishing my 'secrets' are a great way to turn them into "prior art" - you read it here first, you can't patent it now - I can protect my ideas from becoming part of someone else's protected IP by publishing it. This is a great strategy! > I spent a few years working on an x86 clone, I had maybe 10 (now expired) patents on how to get around stupidly obvious things that Intel had patented - (or around ways to get around ways to get around In tel that other's had patented) - frankly from a technical POV it was all a lot of BS, including my patents It might be worthwhile to GPL implementations of those expired patents if they are at all likely to be useful. And perhaps then do a bit of procedural generation of various combinations of them for release under the GPL as well (because those would be newly patentable). Prior art FTW!
  - indolering 5y ago
    > It might be worthwhile to GPL implementations of those expired patents if they are at all likely to be useful. Probably not. It's always something stupid that can be easily worked around. The real problem is convincing a jury: no one wants to risk hundreds of millions of dollars based on what 12 random people think. nVidia caved to Intel after building a Transmeta style VLIW chip that could run x86 assembly because a decade long patent battle would have been costly and invalidated patents on both sides.

Taniwha 5y ago

One other comment about why GPLing something is important for some like me - publishing my 'secrets' are a great way to turn them into "prior art" - you read it here first, you can't patent it now - I can protect my ideas from becoming part of someone else's protected IP by publishing it. I spent a few years working on an x86 clone, I had maybe 10 (now expired) patents on how to get around stupidly obvious things that Intel had patented - (or around ways to get around ways to get around In tel that other's had patented) - frankly from a technical POV it was all a lot of BS, including my patents

webmaven 5y ago
> One other comment about why GPLing something is important for some like me - publishing my 'secrets' are a great way to turn them into "prior art" - you read it here first, you can't patent it now - I can protect my ideas from becoming part of someone else's protected IP by publishing it. This is a great strategy! > I spent a few years working on an x86 clone, I had maybe 10 (now expired) patents on how to get around stupidly obvious things that Intel had patented - (or around ways to get around ways to get around In tel that other's had patented) - frankly from a technical POV it was all a lot of BS, including my patents It might be worthwhile to GPL implementations of those expired patents if they are at all likely to be useful. And perhaps then do a bit of procedural generation of various combinations of them for release under the GPL as well (because those would be newly patentable). Prior art FTW!
- indolering 5y ago
  > It might be worthwhile to GPL implementations of those expired patents if they are at all likely to be useful. Probably not. It's always something stupid that can be easily worked around. The real problem is convincing a jury: no one wants to risk hundreds of millions of dollars based on what 12 random people think. nVidia caved to Intel after building a Transmeta style VLIW chip that could run x86 assembly because a decade long patent battle would have been costly and invalidated patents on both sides.