Hi,
2016-07-01 17:23 Paul Boddie:
Hello again,
I've also posted a message to the FSFE discussion list about the campaign:
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/discussion/2016-July/011110.html
There have been some discussions on that list about open hardware and the threats posed by proprietary hardware and the surveillance features of various CPU families, notably these threads:
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/discussion/2016-April/010912.html
(Featuring an attempt to fund a POWER8-based workstation.)
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/discussion/2016-June/011100.html
(Hopes for "truly free processor architectures", which might not be such a fantasy after all, given improvements in Free Software for programmable logic and synthesis.)
I just posted about this in another thread of this mailing list, specifically about RISC-V. Hopefully somebody will make some in silicon rather than FPGA, either lowrisc, SiFive, or somebody else.
Also I forgot to mention the SH4 architecture with patents expired or expiring, and the intention to create the "J" cores, we'll see how it goes.
I rather hope for a solid discussion of the merits of the campaign, as opposed to people just claiming that it can't be done, won't work, or whatever.
I really believe that it CAN be done and that it WILL work, sooner or later ;)