Rick O’Connor, former Executive Director of the RISC-V Foundation, leads organization for collaboration, ecosystem development and open-source processor cores

Ottawa, Canada and Zurich, Switzerland, June 6, 2019: A new not-for-profit global organization aims to boost the adoption of open-source processors by providing a platform for collaboration, creating a focal point for ecosystem development, and offering open-source IP for processor cores.

Headed by Founder and CEO, Rick O’Connor, the OpenHW Group has already recruited 13 sponsor organizations and expects this to grow to 25 by the end of 2019. OpenHW Group is a member of the RISC-V Foundation ( https://riscv.org/ ) of which O’Connor was Executive Director until May this year, and has entered into a strategic partnership with the Eclipse Foundation, ( https://www.eclipse.org/org/ ) a global community for open-source software collaboration and innovation.

Inaugural OpenHW sponsors include Alibaba, Bluespec, CMC Microsystems, Embecosm, ETH Zurich (University), GreenWaves, Imperas, Metrics, Mythic AI, NXP, Onespin, Silicon Labs and Thales.

The OpenHW Group will serve developers of processor cores and hardware and software engineers who design SoCs. The advent of open ISAs such as RISC-V has encouraged organizations throughout the world to take a fresh look at open-source processor development. For these organizations, the OpenHW Group aims to drive greater awareness, understanding and availability of open-source processor implementations.

O’Connor explains, “If you design or are looking for open-source processor IP, OpenHW Group is an organization for collaborating with like-minded engineers. If you’re an SoC designer, you don’t have to design from scratch; we will help you accelerate your design process by supplying you with a growing range of proven processor IP options, all available within an expanding, high-quality ecosystem. For example, for RISC-V-based processors, we’re introducing the CORE-V family of cores, which supports system-on-chip (SoC) hardware and software designers with a quality and manufacturability assurance when adopting RISC-V processor core IP.”

Rob Oshana, Chairman of the Board, OpenHW Group and VP Software Engineering, NXP said, “The electronics industry is embracing open-source processor technologies at an unprecedented rate. At NXP we believe there’s a need to create a deep ecosystem to support adoption of the RISC-V ISA. This includes various components – middleware, stacks and tools – all aligned to move the architecture forward. I’m pleased to serve as Chairman of the OpenHW Group board to help realise this goal.”

Sponsor and partner testimonials (https://www.openhwgroup.org/# testimonials):

Alessandro Piovaccari, Board Director OpenHW Group and CTO of Silicon Labs

“Within the next few years, most of the billions of SoCs in our smart, connected world will contain many specialized cores to address various tasks from subsystems supervision, to security and machine learning. I’m delighted to join the board of the OpenHW Group because I believe the CORE-V Family of open-source RISC-V cores will be vital in providing robust and accessible processors to address this need, which will ultimately help accelerate innovation in the IoT.”

Xiaoning Qi, Ph.D., Board Director OpenHW Group and VP of Alibaba Group

“Alibaba Group values open innovation that drives the internet technology forward. I am honoured to join the board of the OpenHW Group and support the development of open-source processor technology driving IoT, AI, ML and server platforms.”

Charlie Hauck, Board Director OpenHW Group and CEO, Bluespec

“Bluespec is dedicated to making RISC-V safe and easy to use. We’re excited to see the growing adoption of RISC-V open-source processors and the new age of innovation that it will enable. We look forward to contributing our expertise to the board of the OpenHW Group, whose aims we fully endorse.”

Luca Benini, Professor and Chair of Digital Circuits & Systems, ETH Zurich

“In today’s semiconductor industry, collaboration is crucial to rapid innovation. For ETH Zurich and University of Bologna, and the continuing development of our PULP Platform, the OpenHW Group will provide an invaluable forum for accelerating our research and innovation activities. Hence, we are extremely proud to contribute the cores from our PULP Platform into the OpenHW Group family of Core-V cores.”

Calista Redmond, CEO RISC-V Foundation

“As we continue to cultivate the RISC-V community, we are excited to welcome organizations like OpenHW group as a forum for ongoing innovation and collaboration serving the many stakeholders in the RISC-V revolution.”

Dave Patterson, UC Berkeley Professor, Turing Laureate, & Vice-Chair RISC-V Foundation

“As a passionate believer in open innovation, I’m delighted to see Rick leverage his successful experience with the RISC-V Foundation to lead the OpenHW Group, which will benefit the whole semiconductor industry by making open-source processor technology more accessible to a wider audience.”

Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation

“The Eclipse Foundation has been at the forefront of community-based open source software development for many years.We are pleased to provide our guidance and expertise for the launch of the OpenHW Group and for the ongoing development of open source processor cores and related subsystem IP, tools, and software.”

Philipp Wagner, Director at the FOSSi Foundation

“The FOSSi Foundation welcomes the OpenHW Group to the Free and Open Source Silicon ecosystem. Their sustained development the CORE-V Family of open-source RISC-V cores will be of great benefit to the community. We applaud their efforts to explore an open and meritocracy-based contribution model for free/open silicon, enabling individuals to work as equals together with companies for the good of the whole ecosystem.”