Simply RISC to ship open-source microprocessor

An organization called Simply RISC is the first to ship an open-source microprocessor based on Sun's T1 design using the General Public License. By following Sun's internal standards, the core (known as S1) will in theory be compatible with future versions from other groups and can run Solaris or Linux. It's still a fairly big gamble for Sun as to whether or not opening its famed Sparc chips will lead to industry-changing technology advances. But even if they fail, at least they'll get credit from developers for having tried something new.

For more on hardware:
- read this Techworld article