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2. Introduction

The F-CPU architecture will be unique in many ways by the time it is finalized, but certainly its distinctive characteristic is that it is being designed over the Internet by dozens of volunteers in a free, collaborative effort.

Engineers in general and CPU architects in particular wont easily recognize that an organizational model ultimately influences the resulting design of any large-scale engineering project: there is a widespread (mis)belief that the technical results are independent of human issues, guided only by rational choices based either on technical constraints or economic factors.

Another widespread myth is that good CPU architectures are the work of highly talented individuals working in total isolation, much like Seymour Cray designed the Cray-1 alone in the mountains. A slightly modified version of this myth states that keeping a small team of talented CS and EE engineers in isolation and under pressure will ultimately lead to revolutionary CPU architectures.

The F-CPU architecture is being developed within the framework of the Freedom Project, which is itself based on ideas borrowed from the Free Software movement. The cornerstone of the Free Software movement is the GNU/GPL (General Public License), a document that expresses in legal terms deep-rooted beliefs and ideals related to individual freedom in the Information Age. We cannot summarize the foundations of the Free Software movement in a few phrases, but we can at least mention one noteworthy aspect of Free Software projects: the source code is available for all to view, examine, understand and improve. When applied to a hardware project, this would translate into making the design and its implementation (in the form of VHDL, Verilog or any other hardware description language) as well as the masks corresponding to any particular IC process, freely available.

For the Freedom Project, not only will the final results of the development process be made freely available over the Internet, but the entire development process itself is free, in the sense that anyone can join and contribute by exchanging ideas, discussing design choices, and implementing them.

The F-CPU architecture and its implementation(s), like a (collective) work of art, will be the expression in silicon of these beliefs and ideals, as they reflect on our organizational, development and communication methodologies.

The present document is also being written taking into account this pervasive freedom to think, learn and create that runs through the Freedom Project: it can be changed, updated, corrected and extended at any time. The information herein contained can and should always be improved. The Freedom Project defines the framework in which these improvements can take place.

One last remark: we are doing our best to separate the implementation-dependent parts of the CPU design from the architecture-dependent, when this logical separation makes sense. Sometimes the architecture and its implementation cannot be separated conceptually and/or in practice (well, perhaps they can, but we dont know how to do it - yet).


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