Perens set to tackle open-source hardware

Bruce Perens, an author of the Open Source Definition that codified elements of the collaborative programming philosophy, is set to bring the approach to hardware designs.

On Monday, Perens plans to announce the TAPR Open Hardware License, a document written by John Ackermann designed specifically to govern hardware designs that can be modified and redistrubuted. Perens plans to submit the license to the Open Source Initiative for its as an open-source license.

Version 0.9 (click for PDF) of the license can be downloaded from the Tuscon Amateur Packet Radio Web site. A public comment period on the license lasts through March 7.

The license includes provisions to prohibit those who distributed designs under the license from filing patent infringement lawsuits against those who use those designs patent suits. The license also includes a central site to which hardware developers can provide feedback on the design and a variation that prohibits commercial use of the design.

Open-source hardware is not unknown, but is much rarer--and more unproven--than open-source software. One recent example is Sun Microsystems' OpenSparc processor, which is the open-source version of the "Niagara" chip that Sun sells under the brand name UltraSparc T1.

Sun's chip design is governed by the General Public License (GPL), a seminal and widely used open-source software license. One organization, Simply RISC, has created an OpenSparc variation.