THE FREE RANGE

摘要

Sometime around now, Sun Microsystems will release the designs of its latest microprocessor in the Spare family, the Ultrasparc T1. A product of billions of dollars of R&D spending, it will be available to the public free of charge. It's probably one of the largest investments in engineered hardware that has been released as open source—that is, free to use, without licensing fees, as long as you play by the rules. For Sun, the goal is to enhance the "development ecosystem"—that is, to get more programmers, consultants, clients, and engineers using its technology. Wide acceptance would increase the desirability of the platform as a standard for the future. After all, Sun is in an industry where market adoption (and therefore standardization) is often the most important factor in deciding the fate of a technology.