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CERN Open Hardware Licence

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The CERN Open Hardware Licence ( OHL or CERN OHL ) is an open-source hardware licence created by CERN . The licence comes in three variants: strongly reciprocal (CERN-OHL-S), weakly reciprocal (CERN-OHL-W), and permissive (CERN-OHL-P).

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56-580: The CERN OHL licence was created as an initiative of the members of the Open Hardware Repository, a knowledge-exchange project of electronics designers working in experimental-physics laboratories, founded by CERN engineers, to regulate the use of the designs published by CERN. Version 1.0 was published in March 2011. Following community feedback, Version 1.1 was published in July 2011 to follow

112-462: A direct change to shareholders' equity . The capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power model is an International Accounting Standards Board approved alternative basic accounting model to the traditional historical cost accounting model. Under the historical cost basis of accounting, assets and liabilities are recorded at their values when first acquired. They are not then generally restated for changes in values. Costs recorded in

168-435: A gain of $ 15 which is wholly recognized in year 2. It is standard under the historical cost basis to report the cost of inventory (stock) at the lower of cost and net realisable value . As a result:- Property, plant and equipment is recorded at its historical cost. Cost includes:- In IFRS , cost also includes the initial estimate of the costs of dismantling and removing the item and restoring it. Cost may include

224-562: A gate array. What distinguishes a structured ASIC from a gate array is that in a gate array, the predefined metal layers serve to make manufacturing turnaround faster. In a structured ASIC, the use of predefined metallization is primarily to reduce cost of the mask sets as well as making the design cycle time significantly shorter. For example, in a cell-based or gate-array design the user must often design power, clock, and test structures themselves. By contrast, these are predefined in most structured ASICs and therefore can save time and expense for

280-666: A general rule, if you can find a design in a data book , then it is probably not an ASIC, but there are some exceptions. For example, two ICs that might or might not be considered ASICs are a controller chip for a PC and a chip for a modem . Both of these examples are specific to an application (which is typical of an ASIC) but are sold to many different system vendors (which is typical of standard parts). ASICs such as these are sometimes called application-specific standard products (ASSPs). Examples of ASSPs are encoding/decoding chip, Ethernet network interface controller chip, etc. Amortized cost The historical cost of an asset at

336-524: A hyperinflationary economy:- In management accounting there are a number of techniques used as alternatives to historical cost accounting, including:- The IASB's Framework introduced Capital Maintenance in Units of Constant Purchasing Power as an alternative to Historical Cost Accounting in 1989 in Par. 104 (a) where it states that financial capital maintenance can be measured in either nominal monetary units -

392-427: A low-cost I/O solution aimed at handling the computer's graphics . Customization occurred by varying a metal interconnect mask. Gate arrays had complexities of up to a few thousand gates; this is now called mid-scale integration . Later versions became more generalized, with different base dies customized by both metal and polysilicon layers. Some base dies also include random-access memory (RAM) elements. In

448-589: A manufacturer held as a stock wafer never gives 100% circuit utilization . Often difficulties in routing the interconnect require migration onto a larger array device with a consequent increase in the piece part price. These difficulties are often a result of the layout EDA software used to develop the interconnect. Pure, logic-only gate-array design is rarely implemented by circuit designers today, having been almost entirely replaced by field-programmable devices. The most prominent of such devices are field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) which can be programmed by

504-476: A method of obtaining low cost prototypes. Often called shuttles, these MPWs, containing several designs, run at regular, scheduled intervals on a "cut and go" basis, usually with limited liability on the part of the manufacturer. The contract involves delivery of bare dies or the assembly and packaging of a handful of devices. The service usually involves the supply of a physical design database (i.e. masking information or pattern generation (PG) tape). The manufacturer

560-401: A much higher skill requirement on the part of the design team. For digital-only designs, however, "standard-cell" cell libraries, together with modern CAD systems, can offer considerable performance/cost benefits with low risk. Automated layout tools are quick and easy to use and also offer the possibility to "hand-tweak" or manually optimize any performance-limiting aspect of the design. This

616-482: A particular class. It would therefore be acceptable for an entity to revalue freehold properties every three years. The revaluations must be made with sufficient regularity to ensure that the carrying value does not differ materially from market value in subsequent years. A surplus on revaluation would be recorded as a reserve movement, not as income. Under IFRS and US GAAP derivative financial instruments are reported at fair value, with value changes recorded in

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672-521: A particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficiency video codec . Application-specific standard product chips are intermediate between ASICs and industry standard integrated circuits like the 7400 series or the 4000 series . ASIC chips are typically fabricated using metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) technology, as MOS integrated circuit chips. As feature sizes have shrunk and chip design tools improved over

728-448: A third-party as sub-components of a larger ASIC. They may be provided in the form of a hardware description language (often termed a "soft macro"), or as a fully routed design that could be printed directly onto an ASIC's mask (often termed a "hard macro"). Many organizations now sell such pre-designed cores – CPUs, Ethernet, USB or telephone interfaces – and larger organizations may have an entire department or division to produce cores for

784-496: Is a manufacturing method in which diffused layers, each consisting of transistors and other active devices , are predefined and electronics wafers containing such devices are "held in stock" or unconnected prior to the metallization stage of the fabrication process . The physical design process defines the interconnections of these layers for the final device. For most ASIC manufacturers, this consists of between two and nine metal layers with each layer running perpendicular to

840-635: Is an accepted free content licence according to the Free Cultural Works definition, and Version 2.0 is approved by the Open Source Initiative . On the CERN OHL website they have a list of projects using their licence. These projects include: Application-specific integrated circuit An application-specific integrated circuit ( ASIC / ˈ eɪ s ɪ k / ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for

896-706: Is because the CMUCPP model is generally viewed by accountants as a 1970s failed inflation accounting model that requires all non-monetary items - variable real value non-monetary items and constant real value non-monetary items - to be inflation-adjusted by means of the Consumer Price Index . The IASB did not approve CMUCPP in 1989 as an inflation accounting model. CMUCPP by measuring financial capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power incorporates an alternative capital concept, financial capital maintenance concept and profit determination concept to

952-633: Is criticised for its lack of timely reporting of value changes, it remains in use in most accounting systems during periods of low and high inflation and deflation . During hyperinflation , International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) require financial capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power in terms of the monthly CPI as set out in IAS 29, Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies. Various adjustments to historical cost are used, many of which require

1008-527: Is designed by using basic logic gates, circuits or layout specially for a design. Structured ASIC design (also referred to as " platform ASIC design ") is a relatively new trend in the semiconductor industry, resulting in some variation in its definition. However, the basic premise of a structured ASIC is that both manufacturing cycle time and design cycle time are reduced compared to cell-based ASIC, by virtue of there being pre-defined metal layers (thus reducing manufacturing time) and pre-characterization of what

1064-444: Is intermediate between § Gate-array and semi-custom design and § Full-custom design in terms of its non-recurring engineering and recurring component costs as well as performance and speed of development (including time to market ). By the late 1990s, logic synthesis tools became available. Such tools could compile HDL descriptions into a gate-level netlist . Standard-cell integrated circuits (ICs) are designed in

1120-468: Is largely because ASIC devices are capable of integrating large blocks of system functionality, and systems on a chip (SoCs) require glue logic , communications subsystems (such as networks on chip ), peripherals , and other components rather than only functional units and basic interconnection. In their frequent usages in the field, the terms "gate array" and "semi-custom" are synonymous when referring to ASICs. Process engineers more commonly use

1176-468: Is often referred to as a "silicon foundry" due to the low involvement it has in the process. An application-specific standard product or ASSP is an integrated circuit that implements a specific function that appeals to a wide market. As opposed to ASICs that combine a collection of functions and are designed by or for one customer , ASSPs are available as off-the-shelf components. ASSPs are used in all industries, from automotive to communications. As

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1232-499: Is on the silicon (thus reducing design cycle time). Definition from Foundations of Embedded Systems states that: In a "structured ASIC" design, the logic mask-layers of a device are predefined by the ASIC vendor (or in some cases by a third party). Design differentiation and customization is achieved by creating custom metal layers that create custom connections between predefined lower-layer logic elements. "Structured ASIC" technology

1288-476: Is relevant and reliable. In making that judgement, IAS 8.11 requires management to consider the definitions, recognition criteria, and measurement concepts for assets, liabilities, income, and expenses in the Framework. This elevation of the importance of the Framework was added in the 2003 revisions to IAS 8." IAS8, 11: "In making the judgement, management shall refer to, and consider the applicability of,

1344-399: Is seen as bridging the gap between field-programmable gate arrays and "standard-cell" ASIC designs. Because only a small number of chip layers must be custom-produced, "structured ASIC" designs have much smaller non-recurring expenditures (NRE) than "standard-cell" or "full-custom" chips, which require that a full mask set be produced for every design. This is effectively the same definition as

1400-408: Is that standard-cell design uses the manufacturer's cell libraries that have been used in potentially hundreds of other design implementations and therefore are of much lower risk than a full custom design. Standard cells produce a design density that is cost-effective, and they can also integrate IP cores and static random-access memory (SRAM) effectively, unlike gate arrays. Gate array design

1456-479: Is thus applicable. The CMUCPP model is chosen by hardly any accountant in non-hyperinflationary economies even though it would automatically maintain the real value of constant real value non-monetary items, e.g. issued share capital, retained income, other shareholder equity items, trade debtors, trade creditors, etc., constant for an unlimited period of time in all entities that at least in real value at all levels of inflation and deflation - all else being equal. This

1512-485: The Income Statement are based on the historical cost of items sold or used, rather than their replacement costs. For example, At the end year 1 the asset is recorded in the balance sheet at cost of $ 100. No account is taken of the increase in value from $ 100 to $ 120 in year 1. In year 2 the company records a sale of $ 115. The cost of sales is $ 100, being the historical cost of the asset. This gives rise to

1568-548: The income statement . IFRS requires IAS 29 Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies which prescribes capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power in currencies deemed to be hyperinflationary. The characteristics of a hyperinflation include the population keeping its wealth in non-monetary assets or relatively stable foreign currencies, prices quoted in foreign currencies or widespread indexation of prices. This might arise if cumulative inflation reaches or exceeds 100% over three years. An entity operating in

1624-430: The open-source software movement in hardware design. Soft macros are often process-independent (i.e. they can be fabricated on a wide range of manufacturing processes and different manufacturers). Hard macros are process-limited and usually further design effort must be invested to migrate (port) to a different process or manufacturer. Some manufacturers and IC design houses offer multi-project wafer service (MPW) as

1680-588: The Historical Cost capital concept, financial capital maintenance concept and profit determination concept. CMUCPP requires all constant real value non-monetary items, e.g. issued share capital, retained income, all other items in Shareholders Equity, trade debtors, trade creditors, deferred tax assets and liabilities, taxes payable and receivable, all items in the profit and loss account, etc. to be valued in units of constant purchasing power on

1736-728: The International Accounting Standards Board's predecessor body, the International Accounting Standards Committee Board, in April 1989 for publication in July 1989 and adopted by the IASB in April 2001. "In the absence of a Standard or an Interpretation that specifically applies to a transaction, management must use its judgement in developing and applying an accounting policy that results in information that

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1792-475: The Micromatrix family of bipolar diode–transistor logic (DTL) and transistor–transistor logic (TTL) arrays. Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology opened the door to the broad commercialization of gate arrays. The first CMOS gate arrays were developed by Robert Lipp, in 1974 for International Microcircuits, Inc. (IMI). Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) standard-cell technology

1848-408: The ability to integrate analog components and other pre-designed —and thus fully verified—components, such as microprocessor cores, that form a system on a chip . The disadvantages of full-custom design can include increased manufacturing and design time, increased non-recurring engineering costs, more complexity in the computer-aided design (CAD) and electronic design automation systems, and

1904-426: The balance sheet. For some types of assets with readily available market values, standards require that the carrying value of an asset (or liability) be updated to the market price or some other estimate of value that approximates current value (fair value, also fair market value ). Accounting standards vary as to how the resultant change in value of an asset or liability is recorded; it may be included in income or as

1960-407: The cost of borrowing to finance construction if this policy is consistently adopted. The historical cost is then depreciated : it is systematically reduced to the recoverable amount, over the estimated useful life of the asset, to reflect the asset's usage. The depreciation (reduction of historical cost) is charged to expense. In most cases the "straight line" depreciation method is used, resulting in

2016-559: The design to be brought into manufacturing more quickly. Cell libraries of logical primitives are usually provided by the device manufacturer as part of the service. Although they will incur no additional cost, their release will be covered by the terms of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and they will be regarded as intellectual property by the manufacturer. Usually, their physical design will be pre-defined so they could be termed "hard macros". What most engineers understand as " intellectual property " are IP cores , designs purchased from

2072-410: The designer compared to gate-array based designs. Likewise, the design tools used for structured ASIC can be substantially lower cost and easier (faster) to use than cell-based tools, because they do not have to perform all the functions that cell-based tools do. In some cases, the structured ASIC vendor requires customized tools for their device (e.g., custom physical synthesis) be used, also allowing for

2128-476: The following conceptual stages referred to as electronics design flow , although these stages overlap significantly in practice: These steps, implemented with a level of skill common in the industry, almost always produce a final device that correctly implements the original design, unless flaws are later introduced by the physical fabrication process. The design steps also called design flow , are also common to standard product design. The significant difference

2184-832: The following sources in descending order: (a) the requirements and guidance in Standards and Interpretations dealing with similar and related issues; and (b) the definitions, recognition criteria and measurement concepts for assets, liabilities, income and expenses in the Framework." There is no applicable International Financial Reporting Standard or Interpretation regarding the valuation of constant real value non-monetary items, e.g. issued share capital, retained earnings, capital reserves, all other items in Shareholders Equity, trade debtors, trade creditors, deferred tax assets and liabilities, taxes payable and receivable, all other non-monetary receivables and payables, Profit and Loss account items such as salaries, wages, rents, etc. The Framework

2240-519: The functionality of ASICs. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are the modern-day technology improvement on breadboards , meaning that they are not made to be application-specific as opposed to ASICs. Programmable logic blocks and programmable interconnects allow the same FPGA to be used in many different applications. For smaller designs or lower production volumes, FPGAs may be more cost-effective than an ASIC design, even in production. The non-recurring engineering (NRE) cost of an ASIC can run into

2296-568: The generally accepted principles of the free and open-source movements and make it easier for use by entities other than CERN. Version 1.2, published in September 2013, removed the obligation for licensees that modified a CERN OHL-licensed design to notify upstream licensors about the changes and introduced a notion of "Documentation Location" to guarantee hardware recipients access to the design documents. The license's text ceased to single out Intergovernmental Organizations such as CERN, making them

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2352-520: The implementation of their designs. A solution to this problem, which also yielded a much higher density device, was the implementation of standard cells . Every ASIC manufacturer could create functional blocks with known electrical characteristics, such as propagation delay , capacitance and inductance, that could also be represented in third-party tools. Standard-cell design is the utilization of these functional blocks to achieve very high gate density and good electrical performance. Standard-cell design

2408-423: The mid-1980s, a designer would choose an ASIC manufacturer and implement their design using the design tools available from the manufacturer. While third-party design tools were available, there was not an effective link from the third-party design tools to the layout and actual semiconductor process performance characteristics of the various ASIC manufacturers. Most designers used factory-specific tools to complete

2464-413: The millions of dollars. Therefore, device manufacturers typically prefer FPGAs for prototyping and devices with low production volume and ASICs for very large production volumes where NRE costs can be amortized across many devices. Early ASICs used gate array technology. By 1967, Ferranti and Interdesign were manufacturing early bipolar gate arrays. In 1967, Fairchild Semiconductor introduced

2520-404: The one below it. Non-recurring engineering costs are much lower than full custom designs, as photolithographic masks are required only for the metal layers. Production cycles are much shorter, as metallization is a comparatively quick process; thereby accelerating time to market . Gate-array ASICs are always a compromise between rapid design and performance as mapping a given design onto what

2576-549: The rest of the organization. The company ARM only sells IP cores, making it a fabless manufacturer . Indeed, the wide range of functions now available in structured ASIC design is a result of the phenomenal improvement in electronics in the late 1990s and early 2000s; as a core takes a lot of time and investment to create, its re-use and further development cuts product cycle times dramatically and creates better products. Additionally, open-source hardware organizations such as OpenCores are collecting free IP cores, paralleling

2632-410: The resulting value is often described as amortized cost . Under IFRS it is acceptable, but not required, to re-measure the values of property, plant and equipment at their fair (current) values. 'Fair value' is the amount for which an asset could be exchanged, or a liability settled, between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm's length transaction. Such a policy must be applied to all assets of

2688-423: The same depreciation charge each year until it is expected to be sold or no further economic benefits obtained from it. Other patterns of depreciation are used if assets are used proportionately more in some periods than others. Certain financial items may be recorded at historical cost which is the basic method of financial accounting . Any initial issue premium or discount is amortized to interest over time, and

2744-496: The same as any other licensor or licensee. Version 2.0, published in March 2020, simplified the licence's terminology and divided it into three variants: strongly reciprocal (CERN-OHL-S), weakly reciprocal (CERN-OHL-W), and permissive (CERN-OHL-P). The license's range was broadened to include artistic, mechanical, and electronic designs, as well as adapting it to cases such as application-specific integrated circuits , field-programmable gate arrays , and even software . The CERN OHL

2800-414: The term "semi-custom", while "gate-array" is more commonly used by logic (or gate-level) designers. By contrast, full-custom ASIC design defines all the photolithographic layers of the device. Full-custom design is used for both ASIC design and for standard product design. The benefits of full-custom design include reduced area (and therefore recurring component cost), performance improvements, and also

2856-524: The time it is acquired or created is the value of the costs incurred in acquiring or creating the asset, comprising the consideration paid to acquire or create the asset plus transaction costs . Historical cost accounting involves reporting assets and liabilities at their historical costs, which are not updated for changes in the items' values. Consequently, the amounts reported for these balance sheet items often differ from their current economic or market values. While use of historical cost measurement

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2912-460: The traditional HCA model - or in units of constant purchasing power at all levels of inflation and deflation: the CMUCPP model. The specific choice of measuring financial capital maintenance in units of constant purchasing power (the CMUCPP model) at all levels of inflation and deflation as contained in the Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements, was approved by

2968-423: The use of management judgment and may be difficult to verify. The trend in most accounting standards is towards more timely reflection of the fair or market value of some assets and liabilities, although the historical cost principle remains in use. Many accounting standards require disclosure of current values for certain assets and liabilities in the footnotes to the financial statements instead of reporting them on

3024-418: The user and thus offer minimal tooling charges, non-recurring engineering, only marginally increased piece part cost, and comparable performance. Today, gate arrays are evolving into structured ASICs that consist of a large IP core like a CPU , digital signal processor units, peripherals , standard interfaces , integrated memories , SRAM , and a block of reconfigurable , uncommitted logic. This shift

3080-460: The years, the maximum complexity (and hence functionality) possible in an ASIC has grown from 5,000 logic gates to over 100 million. Modern ASICs often include entire microprocessors , memory blocks including ROM , RAM , EEPROM , flash memory and other large building blocks. Such an ASIC is often termed a SoC ( system-on-chip ). Designers of digital ASICs often use a hardware description language (HDL), such as Verilog or VHDL , to describe

3136-448: Was introduced by Fairchild and Motorola , under the trade names Micromosaic and Polycell, in the 1970s. This technology was later successfully commercialized by VLSI Technology (founded 1979) and LSI Logic (1981). A successful commercial application of gate array circuitry was found in the low-end 8-bit ZX81 and ZX Spectrum personal computers , introduced in 1981 and 1982. These were used by Sinclair Research (UK) essentially as

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