Open Source CPU

In a desperate move to boost sales and compete with Intel and AMD, Sun announced it will put its latest UltraSPARC T2, code-named Niagara 2 into the open source domain. Its official website is here.

Sun realizes if this architecture were kept private and customers had to sign NDAs, they (Sun and this product) will get more middle fingers than money. By letting people to use for free putting this IP (intellectual property) under GPL, it is a shrewd strategy that can net in people who won't consider SPARC CPUs in the first place.

If this move really gains momentum, Sun still can earn money in alot of different ways.

For example (not all examples are from mine, I read some off the net):

1. Keep evolving the architecture such that for latest version n, all version m < n will be released into public domain. Version n which has more features/power/perks will have a (usually hefty) price tag on it. This pricing tactic is used by M$ on Vista, but the problem is customers just don't want Vista at all, despite the branding names like premium, basic, home, business, super-duper, etc.
   
2. Sell related value added products like OS (Solaris, anyone?), customized interconnects, memory controllers, or co-processors. These are really money spinners nowadays
3. Hoping to sell more unrelated products due to its increased popularity. This may not always work for companies that are in the quest to diversify their profiles. A famous fiasco is from Colgate venturing into the business of microwave meals. During part of the post-mortem of its failure, most customers conjured images of tooth-paste when seeing the word 'Colgate', and the problem was most people aren't too keen to have tooth-paste as part of the meal. Tata, Colgate fell on its face flat.

Tomorrow is a public holiday. Sigh... I am not really happy these days...