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NetFPGA Developers Summit - Call For Participation
by Neelakandan 29 Mar '17

29 Mar '17

We welcome you to join us at the University of Cambridge on April 20-21, 2017 for the NetFPGA Developers Summit [1]. Held immediately prior to Eurosys 2017, this event is intended to permit participants attend both events with reduced intercontinental travel. The programme includes presentations, live demonstrations, and group discussions on topics that are of an interest to the NetFPGA community. This event will run "un-conference style" in that we brainstorm the actual session schedule on the first morning, with a focus on interactive topics that reflect the interests and exploit the knowledge of the attendees -- but there's also room for traditional talks, etc. There are plenty of break-out rooms for small groups to meet as they see fit. Confirmed topics include: * Running P4 programmes on NetFPGA * Low latency networking * Running network services in hardware * Optical networks * Traffic control tools * More -- See the draft programme on the Wiki [1] See you in Cambridge, The NetFPGA Team http://www.netfpga.org [1] NetFPGA-Developers-Summit-2017 <https://github.com/NetFPGA/NetFPGA-public/wiki/NetFPGA-Developers-Summit-20…>

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Fwd: ORConf 2017 call for participation
by Andrew Back 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

The ORCONF 2017 CFP is out! Why not head up to Hebden Bridge and make a week of it, with Open Source Hardware Camp, ORCONF and Chip Hack :o) Details below. Cheers, Andrew -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [Orconf-announce] ORConf 2017 call for participation Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2017 23:03:14 +1100 From: Julius Baxter <julius(a)fossi-foundation.org> To: orconf-announce(a)lists.librecores.org Hi all, ORConf 2017 will be held in Hebden Bridge in the UK from Friday to Sunday, September 8th to the 10th. I'd like to announce that we've opened submissions for presentations, posters and hardware displays at the event. Proposals may be submitted through this form: https://goo.gl/forms/fwALSQvbyUfE83Fh1 ORConf aims to be an event aimed at anyone involved in free and open source computer system design, with an emphasis on open source digital design. So if you contribute to a tool to help put systems together, or develop on and debug them, or publish components and IP, or even make fully-open source chips(!) we'd very much like to hear from you! ORConf this year is being held as part of the esteemed Wuthering Bytes Festival of Technology: http://wutheringbytes.com/ There will be events in Hebden Bridge starting September 1st, so do check it out. We'll be in touch when general registration opens and further details of the event become available, which shouldn't be too far away. All details will be on http://orconf.org as they become available. As always we're looking for sponsorship for this year's event. If you think you'd like to have your company's name associated with it, please email us at orconf(a)fossi-foundation.org <mailto:orconf@fossi-foundation.org> and we'll get talking. Whether or not you're intending on presenting, we're hoping to see everyone again for another year of great presentations and, this time, a few good English ales. Cheers, The ORConf team

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OSHUG 57 — Getting started with NetBSD on embedded platforms, Thursday 20th April.
by Andrew Back 15 Mar '17

15 Mar '17

Hello, Registration is now open for the fifty-seventh meeting, which will be an evening workshop, providing a hands-on introduction to NetBSD on embedded platforms. Cheers, Andrew // OSHUG #57 — Getting started with NetBSD on embedded platforms On the 20 April 2017, 17:30 - 20:00 at BCS London, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/57 — Workshop scope You're hired at the latest startup as a hardware engineer and required to build the firmware which will run on "The Greatest Next Generation Appliance" (GNA). The GNA boots, prints a message and interacts with a device (in this case an LED). In this workshop we cover how a person with an interest and a focus on hardware can make progress with the software side by using the NetBSD operating system and the features it offers to save considerable time and effort. * NetBSD supports a wide & diverse range of systems & CPU architectures. * Support for cross compilation is offered by default and works out of the box. * There is a high level language interface to interact with the system internals. * File integrity verification support to detect tampering of binaries and preventing execution is builtin. * An instance of the kernel can be run as a user process on different operating systems where rapid development can take place. Things we will cover: 1. An introduction to cross-compilation with build.sh and constructing an image to boot on your hardware. 2. Interacting with the system using Lua (which is embedded in the kernel, avoiding having to write C or have knowledge of OS internals) to e.g. access GPIO. 3. Preventing the execution of tampered or unauthorised binaries with veriexec. 4. Using rump kernel for rapid development away from a potentially slow dev board. ** Note: Due to budgeting cuts, "The Greatest Next Generation Appliance" has not yet been purchased, so, the workshop will target the development of the firmware on a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black.** — Participant requirements You will need to bring: * Your own laptop (running Windows, Linux or Mac OS X); * A Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black; * An appropriate SD card for your board; * USB card reader to write a new OS image onto said SD card; * An ethernet cable to connect board to laptop and/or a USB UART/FTDI adapter to access the board via the serial console. — Hosted by Sevan Janiyan is founder of Venture 37, which provides system administration & consultancy services. As a fan of operating systems and computers with different CPU architectures, in his spare time he maintains builds of open source software on a variety of systems featuring PowerPC, SPARC and armv7l CPUs. He hopes to own a NeXTcube & OMRON LUNA-88K2 one day. Note: Please aim to arrive by 17:15 as the workshop will start at 17:30 prompt. -- Andrew Back http://abopen.com

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Looking for freelance PCB designer
by Neil Thomson 09 Mar '17

09 Mar '17

Job opportunity for freelance electrical engineer / PCB designer It's The Flash Pac <http://www.itstheflashpack.com/>k are an award winning photo experience agency, specialising in creating fun, interactive photography based experiences at live events. We are known for our innovative approach to briefs, our ability to create striking branded content, and our expertise in delivering amplification of content pre, during, and post event. We are in need of a electrical engineer to spec and design a small PCB for the Raspberry Pi 2, in effect a Raspberry Pi ‘HAT’. The applicant must be able to show recent examples of PCBs designed through to fabrication in Eagle CAD or similar for a commercial client, a thorough understanding of the Raspberry Pi 2 B+ is of benefit. We have a technical requirements document and have sourced some components but consultation is required to fully scope the work, to check that our desired specifications are fully feasible and the components are sufficient to fulfil the requirements. For those interested please email me at (neil(a)itstheflashpack.com) with CV / portfolio. Thanks!

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NetFPGA Design Challenge - Call For Participation
by Neelakandan 04 Mar '17

04 Mar '17

We are pleased to announce the 2017 NetFPGA Design Challenge! NetFPGA platforms are used by the networked systems community for close to a decade. The platforms enable researchers and instructors to build high-speed, hardware-accelerated networking systems. The platforms can be used by researchers to prototype advanced services for next-generation networked systems. By using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), NetFPGA enables new types of packet routing circuits to be implemented and detailed measurements of network traffic to be obtained. The NetFPGA 2017 contest is a design challenge. The design teams are to produce a working implementation employing any HW and SW design methodology and targeting the NetFPGA SUME platform. The deadline for submissions is April 13th, 2017. The winners will be announced at the NetFPGA Developers Summit (Thursday 20th - Friday, 21st April, 2017 Cambridge, UK). Challenge: Lowest Latency Switch Low latency devices are being increasingly used across a large number of applications. Low latency solutions are few, and are rarely open source. The goal of this challenge is to provide a usable, high performance, open source alternative to use by universities and organizations who need the flexibility of open source. The systems will be evaluated using OSNT, an Open Source Network Tester. Test benches will be available online, for users to experiment and independently evaluate their design. The competition is open to students of all levels (undergraduate and postgraduate), as well as to non students. There is no need to own a NetFPGA SUME platform to take part in the competition although, clearly, development and testing will be made easier if you have access to this platform. Team Prizes: First place: 500GBP Best students project: 500GBP The winning projects and runner ups will be invited to present their work at the NetFPGA Developers Summit 2017. All challenge participants are keenly encouraged to attend the NetFPGA Developers Summit and are entitled to a reduced registration rate. The design challenge prizes are generously supported by IMC http://www.imc.nl/ More details can be found at: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netfpga/challenge2017 Good luck! The NetFPGA Team http://www.netfpga.org

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Cirrus Logic Voyager CL-PS7000 documentation
by Sevan / Venture37 13 Feb '17

13 Feb '17

Hello, There is a software emulator for the Apple Newton PDA called Einstein, the developers are looking for documentation for a legacy chipset manufactured by Cirrus Logic to improve the emulator. Would any of you happen to have a copy of the Cirrus Logic Voyager CL-PS7000 Apple Newton PCA Chip Set Engineering Specification? http://www.warthman.com/projects-cirrus-logic-voyager-architectural-overvie… https://twitter.com/stevenf/status/831176567627804672 Apologies for the talk of legacy closed hardware but it is about open source software if that makes it any better :) https://github.com/pguyot/Einstein Sevan

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OSHUG 56 — An introduction to software-defined radio with LimeSDR (workshop), Fri 24th March.
by Andrew Back 12 Feb '17

12 Feb '17

Hello, Registration is now open for the fifty-sixth meeting, which will be a one day workshop, providing a hands-on introduction to software-defined radio with the LimeSDR. This will cover key concepts and LMS7002M FPRF IC architecture, and include simple digital radio examples along with a demonstrations of advanced systems, such as 4G femtocell. // OSHUG #56 — An introduction to software-defined radio with LimeSDR On the 24 March 2017, 09:00 - 17:00 at BCS London, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA. Registration: https://events.bcs.org/book/2451/ A Software-Defined Radio (SDR) is a highly reconfigurable radio that can be used for many different radio applications through simply changing the software that links with it. An example of such a reconfigurable radio is the LimeSDR, which can both transmit and receive data and voice, using just about any wireless system. The LimeSDR was launched by Lime Microsystems in May 2016 via a crowdfunding campaign, and is now shipping to over 3,500 customers worldwide. It is based on the Lime Microsystems LMS7002M Field Programmable RF (FPRF) 2x2 MIMO transceiver, which continuously covers frequencies from 100kHz to 3.8GHz. The LMS7002M has been successfully used in a wide range of digital radio applications, including 2G/4G Femtocell base stations, GNSS, DAB, DVBT receivers and RF test and measurement equipment. The LimeSDR also includes an FPGA and USB 3.0 to provide host connectivity. — Workshop scope The heart of the day is to provide a practical ‘hands-on’ afternoon session using the LimeSDR with the Lime Suite GUI and FFT Viewer. Then to use GNU Octave and Pothos to make some very simple digital radio examples. To facilitate this, the morning will include introductory talks explaining the purpose of the various analogue and digital blocks included in the LMS7002M. It will also include tutorial material covering the key concepts required to understand modern digital radio transceivers, and how to use them, as well as practical issues associated with radio reception. In addition the day will feature some advanced demonstrations showing the full capabilities of the LimeSDR and its LMS7002M transceiver, including 4G Femtocell, as well as educational examples such as a simple OFDM transceiver data link. — Participant requirements ** Participants are required to bring a laptop computer with USB 3.0 ** Minimum computer hardware requirements are USB 3.0 capability and 2GB RAM. Although no prior knowledge of radio is required, an awareness of basic terminology will be very helpful. Basic computer programming and administration skills will also be helpful. The software that will be used must be installed prior to the event. For details see: https://wiki.myriadrf.org/LimeSDR_Workshop — What is provided * LimeSDR hardware will be provided for use during the workshop * A light lunch will be provided and please ensure that any dietary requirements are made clear during registration — Hosted by The workshop will be led by Dr. Danny Webster, who has over 25 years of experience in the field of RF design covering varied applications from military radio to cellular infrastructure. Danny Graduated from Swansea University in 1988 and was awarded a PhD from University College London in 1995. From 1995 he worked as a Research Fellow at University College London and was a consultant to companies such as Nokia, Roke Manor Research and Agilent in Santa Rosa. From 2001 he was with Hipertech and joined Lime Micro in 2005 as Principle Design Engineer (RF) working on Field programmable RF ICs. Danny is a senior member of the IEEE. This workshop is free to attend and hosted by Lime Microsystems in partnership with the BCS Open Source Specialist Group and the Open Source Hardware User Group. Note: Please aim to arrive by 08:45 as the workshop will start at 09:00 prompt. -- Andrew Back http://abopen.com

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OSHUG 55 — FPGA projects past, planned and possible, Thursday 16th February.
by Andrew Back 05 Feb '17

05 Feb '17

Hello, Registration is now open for the February meeting, details of which can be found below. We also still have space for 1 or 2 more short talks of 10-15 minutes, so if you have an idea for a talk, get in touch! Cheers, Andrew // Event #55 — FPGA projects past, planned and possible On the 16 February 2017, 18:00 - 20:00 at BCS London, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/55 The fifty-fifth meeting will feature a series of shorter talks that explore past, planned and possible projects which use FPGAs. — FPGA Projects - What would I build and why would I want to PLAs have been interesting ever since the 70s when digital logic often became complex, consuming unnecessary space and power. Back then the cost of PLA deployment was high and it has continued to be high until recently. Now that we have powerful, low cost development platforms and relatively cheap FPGAs the cost equation has shifted radically. * Paul Tanner is a consultant, developer and maker in wood, metal, plastic, electronics and software. His day job is IT-based business improvement for SMEs. By night he turns energy nut, creating tools to optimise energy use. Paul graduated in electronics and was responsible for hardware and software product development and customer services in several product and service start-ups, switching to consulting in 2000. — Using FPGAs to solve realtime problems Microcontrollers a great platform to solve basic control problems in electronics, with simple motor drivers and sensors readily avaiable and easy to integrate. However, when the motor control becomes more complex with BLDC and FOC things get much more tricky. When you have to use multiple BLDC motors and more complex sensors with image processing the poor microcontroller quickly becomes to swamped to provide control in realtime. This is where adding FPGA technology makes a great deal of sense particularly in mutli-discipline projects like robotics where many sensors, motors and image processing will need to be managed and controlled concurrently. A robotics platform must therefore contain both concurrent hardware resources, algorithmic control through soft or hard cores along with communication protocols. * Alan Wood has been working with parallel distributed programming for several decades. His recent work includes smart grids, 3D printers, robotics, automation and biotec diagnostics. His current research is focused on machine learning, inference and image processing for embedded applications using FPGA and multi-cores. He is a long term advocate and moderator (aka Folknology) for xCORE and other opensource communities, as well as a founder of Surrey and Hampshire Makerspace and myStorm FPGA development boards. — FPGAs in the Cloud? It is no secret that FPGA based computing machines are great at dealing with certain types of workloads that conventional CPU based machines can not efficiently handle. These machines, alongside their GPU and even custom ASIC based brethren, have been filling up racks in large data centres all over the globe helping speed up systems that have components of machine learning, complex analytics and even video processing. This short talk will have a look at the state of FPGAs in the datacenter and discuss the recent developments around the availability of FPGA equipped computing nodes in commodity cloud providers. * Omer Kilic is an Embedded Systems Engineer who enjoys working with small connected computers of all shapes and sizes. He works at the various intersections of hardware and software engineering practices, product development and manufacturing. — Chip Hack 2017 & EDSAC Challenge This talk will introduce and issue a call for participation for two events that are being hosted as part of the Wuthering Bytes technology festival, that will take place in Hebden Bridge in September, in the week following Open Source Hardware Camp 2017. Chip Hack is a two day hands-on workshop that provides a gentle introduction to programming FPGAs and is aimed at novices with no prior experience of Hardware Description Languages (HDLs) or FPGAs. This will be followed immediately by a challenge event, during which a small team of experts will work to extend a basic functional FPGA model of EDSAC — the pioneering computer designed and constructed at Cambridge University, and which was operational by 1949. * Dr Jeremy Bennett is founder and Chief Executive of Embecosm, a consultancy implementing open source compilers and chip simulators for major corporations around the world. He is a author of the standard textbook "Introduction to Compiling Techniques" (McGraw-Hill 1990, 1995, 2003). Contact him at: jeremy.bennett(a)embecosm.com. Note: Please aim to arrive by 18:15 as the event will start at 18:30 prompt. // -- Andrew Back http://abopen.com

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Fwd: 2017 NetFPGA open source design challenge
by Alex Bradbury 01 Feb '17

01 Feb '17

The NetFPGA project are running an open source design challenge, that might be of interest to some people on this list. For more info, see http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netfpga/challenge2017/ Best, Alex ---------- Forwarded message ---------- We are pleased to announce the 2017 NetFPGA Design Challenge! NetFPGA platforms are used by the networked systems community for close to a decade. The platforms enable researchers and instructors to build high-speed, hardware-accelerated networking systems. The platforms can be used by researchers to prototype advanced services for next-generation networked systems. By using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), NetFPGA enables new types of packet routing circuits to be implemented and detailed measurements of network traffic to be obtained. The NetFPGA 2017 contest is a design challenge. The design teams are to produce a working implementation employing any HW and SW design methodology and targeting the NetFPGA SUME platform. The deadline for submissions is April 13th, 2017. The winners will be announced at the NetFPGA Developers Summit (Thursday 20th - Friday, 21st April, 2017 Cambridge, UK). Challenge: Lowest Latency Switch Low latency devices are being increasingly used across a large number of applications. Low latency solutions are few, and are rarely open source. The goal of this challenge is to provide a usable, high performance, open source alternative to use by universities and organizations who need the flexibility of open source. The systems will be evaluated using OSNT, an Open Source Network Tester. Test benches will be available online, for users to experiment and independently evaluate their design. The competition is open to students of all levels (undergraduate and postgraduate), as well as to non students. There is no need to own a NetFPGA SUME platform to take part in the competition although, clearly, development and testing will be made easier if you have access to this platform. Team Prizes: First place: £500 Best students project: £500 The winning projects and runner ups will be invited to present their work at the NetFPGA Developers Summit 2017. All challenge participants are keenly encouraged to attend the NetFPGA Developers Summit and are entitled to a reduced registration rate. The design challenge prizes are generously supported by IMC http://www.imc.nl/ More details can be found at: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netfpga/challenge2017 Good luck! The NetFPGA Team http://www.netfpga.org

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Personal Privacy Online (The Dark Web, Investigatory Powers Act), Thursday 19th January.
by Andrew Back 12 Jan '17

12 Jan '17

Hi All, There are no hardware talks this month, but there will be an excellent series of 3 talks hosted by the BCS OSSG next Thursday, on theme of personal online privacy. Details below. Best, Andrew // Personal Privacy Online (The Dark Web, Investigatory Powers Act) On the 19 January 2017, 18:00 - 20:00 at BCS London, 1st Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA. Registration: https://events.bcs.org/book/2408/ We explore the theme of personal rights and privacy on the modern Internet, with a talk on The Dark Web, covering insights on one of the larger anonymous marketplaces online and another on the new Investigatory Powers Act. — The Investigatory Powers Act: What is it? The Investigatory Powers Act also known as the Snoopers Charter is now law, find out what that means for you and your company. The Snoopers Charter would require metadata on every email, website visit and social media log to be recorded. It covers hacking and mass hacking performed by Government agencies. Its powers can be enforced across the world. It contains over 270 clauses and dwarfs the computer misuse act in terms of size, so this is going to be a speed run covering some of the high points. * Glyn Wintle is a security evangelist and software engineer. He has given evidence in Parliament, frequently gives technical talks about security and is well know for his work with the Open Rights Group. — The Dark Web Within the last years, governmental bodies have been futilely trying to fight against dark web hosted marketplaces. Shortly after the closing of “The Silk Road” by the FBI and Europol in 2013, new successors have been established. Through the combination of cryptocurrencies and nonstandard communication protocols and tools, agents can anonymously trade in a marketplace for illegal items without leaving any record. This talk will presents a research carried out to gain insights on the products and services sold within one of the larger marketplaces for drugs, fake ids and weapons on the Internet, Agora, and on new developments after the demise of Agora. The team behind the research included Andres Baravalle, Sin Wee Lee, Germans Zaharovs (research intern) and Mauro Lopez Sanchez (final year project). The work has been featured on the front page on The Times and on the Guardian, amongst other media. * Andres Baravalle works in the in the University of East London as Senior Lecturer in Computing. He has been working in academia since 2004 (University of Turin, University of Sheffield, Open University, University of East London), while also working as a contractor in industry. Andres has been developing in LAMP environments since 1999 and managing development teams since shortly after. In the past years he has been combining his expertise in web technologies with an interest on security and data science. “ He once made a student cry - by praising his work. Note: Please aim to arrive by 18:15 as the event will start at 18:30 prompt. -- Andrew Back http://abopen.com

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February meeting theme/talks?
by Andrew Back 11 Jan '17

11 Jan '17

Hello, Following the last meeting — and probably in the pub ... — I seem to recall a theme and/or talks being suggested for the meeting on the evening of Thursday 16th February. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Failing which, new suggestions welcome :o) Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Back http://abopen.com

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Residencies in Shenzhen for UK makers
by marc barto 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

Happy new year all This call for makers might interest some OSHUG members: It a residency programme for UK makers to go to Shenzhen (arguably the electronics manufacturing capital of the world). All info here: http://creativeconomy.britishcouncil.org/blog/16/12/16 /calling-all-uk-makers-opportunity-travel-shenzhen/ One of the residency is with Makeblock to prototype a kit with their team. I have visited their office in Shenzhen, it's pretty much a mini-Legoland for hardware makers. Other residencies are around maker education, sustainability, 3D Printing etc. And generally this city is worth a trip to source components or discover how the Shanzhai <http://www.vam.ac.uk/shekou/from-shenzhen-shanzhai-and-the-maker-movement/> ecosystem works, that said don't go there if you can't stand air pollution! cheers -- Marc @marc_in_london <https://twitter.com/marc_in_london>

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OSHUG #53 — Getting started with FPGAs & Verilog using IceStorm & myStorm (workshop), Thursday 1st December.
by Andrew Back 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Hello, Excited to announce that in a little over a month we will be jointly hosting with BCS OSSG, a 1-day workshop that will serve as an introduction to FPGAs and Verilog, via the most excellent project IceStorm/Yosys/Arachne-pnr open source toolchain and myStorm iCE40 FPGA board. You can find details below and note that at the time of writing there is a mistake on the BCS event page and the timing is 09:00-17:00, as on the OSHUG page. Place are limited, FPGA workshops have proven highly popular in the past and so if you would like to take part, I'd suggest registering sooner rather than later. However, please only register if you are confident that you can make it, as the workshop will likely sell out fairly quickly and we'd prefer to avoid having a waiting list and then empty seats on the day. Note that the venue for this is the RSA and not the BCS. There will also be a regular meeting in the evening, but at a different venue and further details will be provided in due course. Cheers, Andrew // On the 1 December 2016, 09:00 - 17:00 at Prince Philip Room, The Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6EZ. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/53 A full day, hands-on FPGA programming workshop that is free to attend. The regular monthly meeting will then follow in the evening, but at a different venue and for details see the OSHUG No. 54 event page (to be added soon!). Please note that if you intend to attend both the workshop and evening meeting, you must register separately for each of these! — Workshop details In this workshop we will build some basic Verilog blocks and modules targeting low power, low cost FPGAs from the Lattice iCE40 series. The workshop will operate using a complete open source Verilog toolchain based around Yosys and Arachne-PNR, which can be run on Linux and OS X. We will cover basic sequential and combinational logic blocks. In addition we will show you how you can combine simple ARM microcontroller code running alongside and communicating with Verilog peripherals synthesised on a Lattice iCE40 FPGA, all running together on myStorm. This workshop will give participants a real taste of FPGA development in an open source software environment, using open source hardware. * Ken Boak started his professional career at BBC Research Department in 1986 working on digital signal processing systems for HDTV and subsequently over 30 years, a mix of 10 other technology companies, both UK and US based, in the fields of instrumentation, automation, telemetry telecomms. Ken has been interested in energy monitoring since the early 1990s, when he constructed a 4 seater electric car, and provided rudimentary energy analysis of the battery charge and discharge cycles. In 1998 he joined a South London company and designed a low power wireless, monitor device for automatic, remote gas and electricity meter reading. In 2009 Ken worked on the Onzo Energy Monitoring Kit, a commercial device that was ultimately distributed to Southern Electric customers. Then in 2010 he produced a series of educational devices to teach engineering undergraduates the principles of photovoltaic energy systems. Ken has continued his interests in energy monitoring, working collaboratively with Megni on the OpenEnergyMonitor project, the open Inverter Project and also for All Power Labs in Berkeley, California, where he was involved in power monitoring of wood gasifier generator sets. He tries to live a low impact lifestyle in a modest Edwardian house in Surrey, with a little help from modern electronics. * Alan Wood has been working with parallel distributed programming for several decades. His recent work includes smart grids, 3D printers, robotics, automation and biotec diagnostics. His current research is focused on machine learning for embedded applications using Motes on FPGA and emerging Asics. He is a long term advocate and moderator (aka Folknology) for xCORE and other opensource communities, as well as a founder of Surrey and Hampshire Makerspace. — What to bring Participants must bring a laptop computer and ideally one that is running either Linux or OS X. If your laptop is running Windows, you should also bring along a Raspberry Pi or similar Linux SBC, that you can use to build the toolchain and program myStorm over USB. Note: Please aim to arrive by 08:45 as the workshop will start at 09:00 prompt.

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Another RISC-V project
by Jeremy Bennett 29 Nov '16

29 Nov '16

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hot on the heels OnChip and Open-V of comes https://www.crowdsupply.com/sifive/hifive1 I note they have already met their target on the first day (it wasn't a very hard target). Jeremy - -- Tel: +44 (1590) 610184 Cell: +44 (7970) 676050 SkypeID: jeremybennett Twitter: @jeremypbennett Email: jeremy.bennett(a)embecosm.com Web: www.embecosm.com PGP key: 1024D/BEF58172FB4754E1 2009-03-20 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iEYEARECAAYFAlg9qmQACgkQvvWBcvtHVOFH5QCfYP3W6aBQOYoHVH70YLhqiAhG q4kAn3JesS6OfLDaHMg30DJuU6+xR34e =yaiL -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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grand unification theory of modular units
by Matt Maier 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

I'm trying to reach a conclusion regarding one system of measurements we can use for modular designs that will work everywhere. https://www.atthatmatt.com/research/grand-unification- theory-of-modular-units/ What I've got so far is that the Open Structures 40mm grid is the way to go because most of the world uses metric and the most commonly available imperial parts can be shimmed to fit.

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Fwd: Call for Participation in FOSDEM 2017 EDA devroom
by Kaspar Emanuel 26 Nov '16

26 Nov '16

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Javier Serrano <Javier.Serrano(a)cern.ch> Date: 14 October 2016 at 16:14 Subject: Call for Participation in FOSDEM 2017 EDA devroom To: eda-devroom(a)lists.fosdem.org Dear all, I just published the call for participation: http://www.ohwr.org/projects/ohr-meta/wiki/FOSDEM2017 As you can see, it's basically copy/paste from last year's, with the addition of the possibility of having tutorials. Please help spread the word around you, and of course feel free to submit suggestions here regarding the devroom itself. Thanks, Javier _______________________________________________ eda-devroom mailing list eda-devroom(a)lists.fosdem.org https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/eda-devroom

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32-bit RISC-V microcontroller crowdfunding.
by Andrew Back 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

Hello, The fully open source RISC-V based 32-bit microcontroller, Open-V, is now crowdfunding on Crowd Supply: https://www.crowdsupply.com/onchip/open-v Best, Andrew

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MFS Meeting. Tue, 15 Nov. Talk: "Talos Secure Workstation" + Campaigning: "MFS CETA letter"
by Michael Dorrington 09 Nov '16

09 Nov '16

Please feel free to forward this to those that would welcome it. * Event: Manchester Free Software's November Meeting * Talk: Talos Secure Workstation * Speaker: Michael Dorrington * Campaigning: MFS CETA letter * Date: Tuesday, 15th November 2016 (3rd Tuesday of the month) * Start time: 19:00 * Finish time: 20:30 (and then on for social) * Location: Madlab. (Manchester Digital Laboratory). - http://madlab.org.uk/ * Address: 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester. M4 1HN. - Opposite "Common" on Edge Street, Northern Quarter. - http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/53.48413/-2.23639 == Details == The purpose of Manchester Free Software is to promote the Free Software philosophy. Every meeting we start with an opportunity for informal key signing. For an explanation of what this is about see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signing_party The meeting schedule is: 19:00-19:45 Talk: "Talos Secure Workstation" 19:45-20:30 Campaigning: "MFS CETA letter" === Talk === There are now several free hardware computer designs, many having used Crowd Supply to seek backers to get all the way to being manufactured. The Talos Secure Workstation is now on Crowd Supply hoping to become a tangible reality. What differentiates Talos from other free hardware is that it's very powerful. Most free hardware is low power consuming but also has lower computing power, however Talos competes with high end workstation/server non-free hardware. Another differentiation is that Talos uses a Power Architecture, an alternative to x86 and ARM. Talos has some in particularly interesting features: * Power Architecture using POWER8 * No Intel Management Engine or similar * Hardware virtualisation support including IO * Promised "open-toolchain FPGAs" * Lots of PCIe slots * Other I/O capability including GPIO pins In the talk we will discuss the Talos specification, history, Crowd Supply and future. Discussion will be had on possible shared purchase. More information: * https://www.crowdsupply.com/raptor-computing-systems/talos-secure-workstati… * https://www.crowdsupply.com/raptor-computing-systems/power8-cpus * https://www.crowdsupply.com/about * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Architecture If you have experience of free hardware, Power Architecture or similar then please consider giving a lightning talk at the meeting. === Campaigning === The "Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement" (CETA), an agreement between the EU and Canada, was signed on 30th October. This agreement has anti-free software measures which Manchester Free Software oppose. This campaigning section of the meeting aims to get a good start on a letter detailing these measures, the negative effect they'll have on free software, why people should value software freedom and the work that Manchester Free Software does. More information: * https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/the-many-headed-monster-of-internationa… * https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/trading-freedom * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CETA == After-meeting == The meeting will be followed by informal discussion and socialising in the Terrace (which is next door to Madlab). There are soft drinks available and there is no pressure to consume alcohol. == Location == The meeting will take place at the usual venue of Madlab, details above. == Transport == === Parking === Around the venue there are parking meter bays that become zero cost after 8pm on Tuesday so you will have to pay up until then and the maximum stay is 2 hours BUT MAKE SURE YOU VERIFY ALL THIS on parking. There are paid parking lots around the venue, they are marked by a blue P in this OpenStreetMap centred on Madlab <http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/53.4843/-2.2365>. Most of those parking lots are owned by NCP <http://www.ncp.co.uk/>. If you can’t decide otherwise then park in Manchester Arndale <http://www.manchesterarndale.com/directions.aspx>. === Public Transport === Manchester Victoria (MCV) train station, Shudehill tram and bus station, and Manchester Piccadilly bus station are all fairly close to Madlab, see OpenStreetMap centred on Madlab <http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/53.4843/-2.2365>. Manchester Piccadilly (MAN) train station and Manchester Central Coach Station are not too far away either. == More Information == Information about Manchester Free Software can be found on the Manchester Free Software pages on LibrePlanet <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Manchester>. Regards, Mike. MFS Chair. -- FSF member #9429 http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429 http://www.fsf.org/about "The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users."

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Re: [oshug] oshug Digest, Vol 77, Issue 2
by Mark.itto 04 Nov '16

04 Nov '16

BOOM! Excellent news. looking forward to this. See you there. Also now that I got you here I was wondering if anyone can have a look at my https://forum.mystorm.uk/ account it's maco1717 i created it with a typo on the email address never got the activation link Thanks. On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 12:00 PM, <oshug-request(a)oshug.org> wrote: > Send oshug mailing list submissions to > oshug(a)oshug.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://oshug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/oshug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > oshug-request(a)oshug.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > oshug-owner(a)oshug.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of oshug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. event#53 (Mark.itto) > 2. Re: event#53 (Alan Wood) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2016 16:21:14 +0000 > From: "Mark.itto" <maco1717(a)gmail.com> > To: oshug(a)oshug.org > Subject: [oshug] event#53 > Message-ID: > <CADB-D=Nr5OYNNpukHy49+uqr1O-GVwoV=oXYcivZMofpf3ij0w@mail. > gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hi, > > I was wondering I we going to be using the mystorm boards? > > Are they available to purchase yet? if so where can I find them I would > like to bring my own to take it home. also if there anything to go with it > required or recomended? > > Looking forward to this. > > Kind regards and thanks. > Marco. >

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event#53
by Mark.itto 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Hi, I was wondering I we going to be using the mystorm boards? Are they available to purchase yet? if so where can I find them I would like to bring my own to take it home. also if there anything to go with it required or recomended? Looking forward to this. Kind regards and thanks. Marco.

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OSHUG #54 — Educating the Next Generation, Thursday 1st December.
by Andrew Back 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

Hello, Details below of the final OSHUG meeting of 2016, which will take place on the evening of Thursday 1st December, following on from the workshop earlier that day. Please note once again that we are not at the BCS offices in Covent Garden, and a big thanks to Chris Swan for kindly arranging for us to be hosted at the CSC offices in the City. Don't forget that if you plan to take part in the workshop and attend the evening meeting, that you need to register for both separately. Cheers, Andrew // On the 1 December 2016, 18:00 - 20:00 at CSC, 3rd Floor, The Wallbrook Building, 25 Wallbrook, London, EC4N 8AQ. Registration: http://oshug.org/event/54 At the fifty-fourth meeting there will be three talks on the theme of educating the next generation. — myStorm update myStorm is an open hardware and software FPGA development platform that is based around a Lattice iCE40 FPGA, which uses the fully open source IceStorm/Yosys/Arache-pnr toolchain for development. It is low cost and aims to provide a gentle on-ramp for those who are new to RTL development and working with FPGAs. In this talk we will hear a report from the workshop which took place earlier in the day, together with a status update on the myStorm project. * Ken Boak started his professional career at BBC Research Department in 1986 working on digital signal processing systems for HDTV and subsequently over 30 years, a mix of 10 other technology companies, both UK and US based, in the fields of instrumentation, automation, telemetry telecomms. Ken has been interested in energy monitoring since the early 1990s, when he constructed a 4 seater electric car, and provided rudimentary energy analysis of the battery charge and discharge cycles. In 1998 he joined a South London company and designed a low power wireless, monitor device for automatic, remote gas and electricity meter reading. In 2009 Ken worked on the Onzo Energy Monitoring Kit, a commercial device that was ultimately distributed to Southern Electric customers. Then in 2010 he produced a series of educational devices to teach engineering undergraduates the principles of photovoltaic energy systems. Ken has continued his interests in energy monitoring, working collaboratively with Megni on the OpenEnergyMonitor project, the open Inverter Project and also for All Power Labs in Berkeley, California, where he was involved in power monitoring of wood gasifier generator sets. He tries to live a low impact lifestyle in a modest Edwardian house in Surrey, with a little help from modern electronics. * Alan Wood has been working with parallel distributed programming for several decades. His recent work includes smart grids, 3D printers, robotics, automation and biotec diagnostics. His current research is focused on machine learning for embedded applications using Motes on FPGA and emerging Asics. He is a long term advocate and moderator (aka Folknology) for xCORE and other opensource communities, as well as a founder of Surrey and Hampshire Makerspace. — micro:bit first impressions The BBC micro:bit is an ARM Microcontroller based development board that has been handed out to all year 7 (first year secondary) school kids. The BBC's aim is to get kids coding, along the same lines as with the BBC Micro that became ubiquitous in schools in the 80s. This presentation will look at what it can (and can't) do, and how accessible it is. * Chris Swan has been tinkering with electronics since he was a small child, and got into software when he realised that it was necessary to make hardware do interesting things. In his day job as CTO for Global Infrastructure Services for CSC he's bringing a large services company and its customers into a world of DevOps and Infrastructure as Code. On evenings and weekends he can often be found making some sort of project around a dev board, with a particular fondness for Raspberry Pis. — Encouraging the next generation: How a 16-year old got to present his silicon chip design at CERN In 2014 a local Year 10 student, Dan Gorringe, approached Embecosm to ask it he could do a 2-week work experience with us. We agreed and asked him to take our existing hobbyist weekend course on introductory FPGA design with Verilog and rework it for use by students of his age. We forgot to tell him teenagers aren't supposed to be able to write Verilog, and the result was the Embecosm Application Note, Silicon Chip Design for Teenagers. In 2015, Dan asked to work for us over the summer. We had recently designed an instruction set architecture, AAP, which is a 16-bit mixed byte/word addressed Harvard architecture to test compiler technology, and which worked in simulation. We realized that a physical implementation would be very useful, so we asked Dan to create this over the summer. We forgot to tell him that teenagers aren't supposed to be able to design processors and the result was an implementation of AAP which runs on a DE0-Nano FPGA board. As a result Dan was asked to present his work at ORCONF 2015, which happened to be held at CERN. Probably one of the better excuses for a day off school. Dan also subsequently won the BCS OSSG School Student competition for his work, which he spoke about at the BCS AGM in October 2016. Dan came to work for us this summer, and since we are currently working on energy efficient compilation for high performance computing we asked him to build us a system out of single board computers. We again forgot to tell him that teenagers aren't supposed to be able to design supercomputers. We demonstrated his system at the BCS OSSG AGM, and it is reported in the HiPEAC newsletter of November 2016 for academic researchers in high performance and energy efficient computing in Europe. Dan is taking his 'A' levels next summer and is hoping to attend university next year to study engineering mathematics. In this talk we'll look at the factors that made such a series of projects both possible and successful. * Dr Jeremy Bennett is founder and Chief Executive of Embecosm, a consultancy implementing open source compilers and chip simulators for major corporations around the world. He is a author of the standard textbook "Introduction to Compiling Techniques" (McGraw-Hill 1990, 1995, 2003). Contact him at: jeremy.bennett(a)embecosm.com. Note: Please aim to arrive by 18:15 as the event will start at 18:30 prompt.

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MFS Meeting. Tue, 18 Oct. Talk: "BeagleBoard-X15: First look"
by Michael Dorrington 18 Oct '16

18 Oct '16

Please feel free to forward this to those that would welcome it. * Event: Manchester Free Software's October Meeting * Talk: BeagleBoard-X15: First look * Speaker: Michael Dorrington * Date: Tuesday, 18th October 2016 (3rd Tuesday of the month) * Start time: 19:00 * Finish time: 20:30 (and then on for social) * Location: Madlab. (Manchester Digital Laboratory). - http://madlab.org.uk/ * Address: 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester. M4 1HN. - Opposite "Common" on Edge Street, Northern Quarter. - http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/53.48413/-2.23639 == Details == The purpose of Manchester Free Software is to promote the Free Software philosophy. Every meeting we start with an opportunity for informal key signing. For an explanation of what this is about see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signing_party The meeting will be a talk and then discussion on the talk. After this we will discuss event work. === Talk === The BeagleBoard.org Foundation have designed a series of ARM based Free Hardware computers that are Free Software friendly. Manchester Free Software have previously demonstrated one model, the BeagleBone Black, running a Wi-Fi mesh network and FreedomBone. The designs up to and including the BeagleBone Black are similar to the Raspberry Pi, but for people who care about freedom. BeagleBoard.org have now designed ARM based Free Hardware computer that is more like a desktop computer and about the size of a NUC. The BeagleBoard-X15 has some in particularly interesting features: * 2 real Gigabit Ethernet ports * 2G RAM * USB 3.0 * eSATA * Lots of other I/O capability. Mass production of hardware has been delayed but we have an early low volume revision to demonstrate. In the talk we will explore the BeagleBoard-X15 including live demos and use cases. More information: * http://beagleboard.org/about * http://beagleboard.org/x15 * http://www.elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoard-X15 If you have experience of Beagleboard.org hardware, other Free Hardware, ARM devices, U-Boot or similar then please consider giving a lightning talk at the meeting. === Event work === Discuss the GNOME 3.22 release party that happened on 23rd September and MFS organising a Debian 9 (Stretch) release party when it is released sometime next year. == After-meeting == The meeting will be followed by informal discussion and socialising in the Terrace (which is next door to Madlab). There are soft drinks available and there is no pressure to consume alcohol. == Location == The meeting will take place at the usual venue of Madlab, details above. == Transport == === Parking === Around the venue there are parking meter bays that become zero cost after 8pm on Tuesday so you will have to pay up until then and the maximum stay is 2 hours BUT MAKE SURE YOU VERIFY ALL THIS on parking. There are paid parking lots around the venue, they are marked by a blue P in this OpenStreetMap centred on Madlab <http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/53.4843/-2.2365>. Most of those parking lots are owned by NCP <http://www.ncp.co.uk/>. If you can’t decide otherwise then park in Manchester Arndale <http://www.manchesterarndale.com/directions.aspx>. === Public Transport === Manchester Victoria (MCV) train station, Shudehill tram and bus station, and Manchester Piccadilly bus station are all fairly close to Madlab, see OpenStreetMap centred on Madlab <http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/53.4843/-2.2365>. Manchester Piccadilly (MAN) train station and Manchester Central Coach Station are not too far away either. == More Information == Information about Manchester Free Software can be found on the Manchester Free Software pages on LibrePlanet <https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Manchester>. Regards, Mike. MFS Chair. -- FSF member #9429 http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9429 http://www.fsf.org/about "The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom and to defend the rights of all free software users."

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BCS OSSG/OSHUG meeting 6pm 20 Oct: Extra Talk
by Jeremy Bennett 17 Oct '16

17 Oct '16

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all, In addition to our four talks on the Light Theremin, Silicon Chip Design for the Masses, The Algorithm Visualizer and the MyStorm FPGA board, we have an extra talk this coming Thursday. Nick Pelling (who older members will remember as Orlando M Pilchard) will give a lightning talk on "Open Source Research" linked to his recently announced KickStarter project. Abstract: Nick Pelling is programmer by day. By night he conducts open source research on his blog http://ciphermysteries.com/. He uses the blog to summarize what he finds, to post transcriptions and translations of sources, and to actively invite comments and corrections from readers (the blog has just passed 2 million hits and 19000 comments). He recently launch a KickStarter project to fund a documentary about his open source research into pirate treasure on Mauritius (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nickpelling/gold-beyond-your-dreams). In this lightning talk he'll introduce the concept of open source research and how it drives his KickStarter project. Bio: Nick Pelling is a British-born computer programmer and inventor, best known for a series of 1980s video games for the BBC Micro and Commodore 64 programmed under the pen name Orlando M. Pilchard or simply Orlando, and released under the company title Aardvark Software. Nick has a degree in Maths and Philosophy from Manchester University and an MBA with Distinction from Kingston University. Registration is free as always, but sign up soon, so I order the right amount of food and drink! https://events.bcs.org/book/2241/ See you there. Jeremy - -- Tel: +44 (1590) 610184 Cell: +44 (7970) 676050 SkypeID: jeremybennett Twitter: @jeremypbennett Email: jeremy.bennett(a)embecosm.com Web: www.embecosm.com PGP key: 1024D/BEF58172FB4754E1 2009-03-20 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iGMEARECACMFAlgE6h0cHGplcmVteS5iZW5uZXR0QGVtYmVjb3NtLmNvbQAKCRC+ 9YFy+0dU4dcVAJ9xH/UJbyMYlPldzVa2OhNVqX75KwCeOF7btTNZKR5NgJEWg8DW yKZtPpY= =S6G+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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BCS OSSG/OSHUG meeting, 6pm 20 Oct. The future of open source
by Jeremy Bennett 06 Oct '16

06 Oct '16

Our new season starts with four talks on Thursday 20 October. We'll be hearing from the three winners of the BCS OSSG student competion. - Dan Gorringe on the AAP FPGA implementation and his new supercomputer - Chelsea Back on her open source Light Theremin - Luke A Roberts on visualizing algorithms Dan has promised to bring his supercomputer with him! The evening will round off with a talk by Ken Boak & Alan Wood on the MyStorm project, an ultra low cost (£20) FPGA board. We'll be running a full day workshop to allow you to get your hands on the first of these boards on 1 December. This project is particularly dear to our hearts, because it arose from discussion in the pub following our May meeting. Hear how they went from pub discussion to production in 100 days. The meeting will be preceded by our AGM, to select the new BCS OSSG committee. More volunteers are welcome and you don't have to be a BCS member! Full details of all the talks here: http://ossg.bcs.org/blog/2016/10/06/the-future-of-open-source-silicon-chip-… And free registration here: http://www.bcs.org/content/conEvent/10589 I look forward to seeing you there. Best wishes, Jeremy -- Tel: +44 (1590) 610184 Cell: +44 (7970) 676050 SkypeID: jeremybennett Twitter: @jeremypbennett Email: jeremy.bennett(a)embecosm.com Web: www.embecosm.com PGP key: 1024D/BEF58172FB4754E1 2009-03-20

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VDSL2 / ADSL2+ Annex M modem recommendations
by J. R. Haigh 15 Sep '16

15 Sep '16

Hi, . A lightning strike near my parents' house frazzled their phone and Internet connection, yesterday. It has damaged and disabled their ISP-provided router, as well as disabled the phone service, which indicates that at least one other piece of equipment – possibly the faceplate or equipment at the exchange – has also been damaged by the electromagnetic pulse from the strike. . While that other damage is diagnosed and fixed, I could do with getting a VDSL2 modem that, together with an existing OpenWrt, non-DSL router, will replace the nonlibre, ISP-provided, VDSL2 router. . As always, I'd prefer it to be OSH and run libre firmware. If possible, it would ideally be able to analyse the frequency spectrum of SNR or attenuation on the line, and show something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ADSL_spectrum_Fritz_Box_Fon_WLAN.png That, and any other diagnostics, would be really useful to quickly determine the quality of their long rural line which has several outages and degradations per year. . Seeing as this is the 3rd occasion in about a decade and a half that an EMP has frazzled their modem / modem router, and seeing as I'm planning to get an ADSL2+ Annex M landline myself in my flat, if there's an OSH VDSL2/ADSL2+ modem that can show diagnostics then I'd gladly get 3 of them! . Otherwise, please advise me on recommendations of the freeëst such modem(s) available. Best regards, James R. Haigh. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail.

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