
An Open Source Release of the Freedom U540-C000's Bootloader - nickik
https://www.sifive.com/blog/2018/09/06/an-open-source-release-of-the-freedom-u540-c000s-bootloader/
======
nickik
Notice that this is really a cool development about something that SiFive was
criticized for.

It was picked up for example here:
[https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=RISC-
V-N...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=RISC-V-Not-All-
Open-Yet)

> All this said, note that the HiFive is no more open, today, than your
> average ARM SOC; and it is much less open than, e.g., Power. I realize there
> was a lot of hope in the early days that RISC-V implied "openness" but as we
> can see that is not so. There's blobs in HiFive.

> Open instruction sets do not necessarily result in open implementations. An
> open implementation of RISC-V will require a commitment on the part of a
> company to opening it up at all levels, not just the instruction set.

> by Ron Minnich (Google, Coreboot)

Its fantastic to see that they are really pushing in that direct. Specially
that they try to go as deep as possible form there.

Establish a new standard people strive for, open hardware and firmware.

There are many blobs left but having a platform that starts out pretty open
will allow lots more development on the missing pieces.

Edit: I think Ron is now happy
[https://github.com/sifive/freedom-u540-c000-bootloader/pull/...](https://github.com/sifive/freedom-u540-c000-bootloader/pull/2)

------
tux1968
> the first person to submit a pull request that can exactly reproduce that
> ROM will get a HiFive Unleashed board!

That's a fun challenge and a nice reward.

------
the-dude
Title deserves mention of RISC-V board.

~~~
nickik
I did when I submitted it but its not there anymore.

Edit: To any admin I think it was necessary context to understand the title
and I think it should be added back.

