Once again, I present a random sample of new stories that I find interesting and on-topic regarding SDR, open source, or technology.
To give this a bit more focus, I will pick 10 stories of the month, not in any particular order.
Nvidia “open-sources” their drivers.
Sources: heise.de, golem.de, lwn.net, hackaday.com
Nvidia has always been a strong opponent of anything open-source, so this is huge news no matter the details. Of course, the details do matter, and none of the news pages linked above are naive about the quality of openness that these “open” drivers have. Hackaday immediately afterward posted an op-ed titled [“Who is thinking about Open Source firmware?”]https://hackaday.com/2022/05/14/who-is-thinking-about-open-source-firmware/) in which they discuss one aspect of the many problems with this release by Nvidia, namely the fact that most of the intelligence goes into the closed firmware blob.
Why are they doing this? Well, there’s no official reason, but Nvidia is no longer a gaming company. Their Q1 ‘22 revenue sets a new record for the company, with a huge part of that going to datacenter and supercomputing solutions. And datacenters want to run proper Linux.
SFConservancy goes with new tack in GPL suite
Sources: golem.de, sfconservancy.org
One of our favourite lawyers, Karen Sandler, is at it again. In a lawsuit against Vizio, Inc (a TV manufacturer from California), the court is treating this as a consumer right issue, not (just) a copyright issue. Put differently, they are sueing as the party infringed upon, because Vizio should make their GPL-licensed codes available easily, so consumers can fix their TVs themselves. This is different from a lawsuit where the copyright owner of the code is suing because their code is being mis-used according to their license. Go SFConservancy!
Germany Military: “Lack the capability for secure communications”
Source: heise.de
We recently learned the German military needs 100 Billion Euros just to be in a state of expected defense capabilities. Like, fix stuff, buy ammo etc. Turns out, NATO partners won’t even use radios to chat with German troops because their radios are too insecure. Embarrassing!
And what are the solutions? Well, apparently, one of the solutions might be to use Starlink (twitter). Sigh.
Linux 5.18 bumps C standard
Source: heise.de
I’m a bit surprised myself to be listing a kernel release here, but there’s just too many interesting tidbits in this release. First, there’s the discussion around “Software Defined Silicon” (SDSi), an Intel thing which allows Intel to enable/disable CPU features based on a subscription model. Sounds scary! Also, reminds a bit of the Nvidia thing with their closed blobs. And also, someone managed to convince Linus to bump the C standard to C11. All the way to 11!
More Open Source in German bureaucracy?
My home state Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate for you English speakers) has stated they are already using North of 20% in Open Source software (source: golem.de. According to the secretary of digital stuff (that’s not his official title), the plan is to increase that percentage. Rationale is to save money and allow more competition in modifying software to their needs.
At the same time, the federal government are spending more money on digital infrastructure, Open Source also being part of this effort. Here, the plan is to increase Germany’s digital independence. According to a study conducted by the University of Bonn, it’s about time: Germany’s digital dependence index (DDI) is pretty high (0.82, where 1.0 is fully dependent). Come on Germany, get your act together.
Intel publishes roadmap towards 800 Gbit/s
Source: heise.de, theregister.com
Not only Nvidia is going strong in the data center, Intel is, too. Their latest roadmap shows 800 Gbit/s capabilities coming into their main NIC product lines by 2026.
Much more interesting than the bit-rate are the additional capabilities of these so-called “SmartNICs”, or, as Intel calls them, “Infrastructure Processing Units” (IPUs). To handle all of these data, NICs are receiving more compute power to directly handle data as it comes off the cable, e.g. for de-/encryption, storing/caching, or any other preprocessing.
The current generation of IPU, “Mount Evans”, for example, comes with up to 16 ARM cores, NVMe storage, DDR4 memory, and optional FPGA extension modules. To enable programming all of this, Intel is pushing the Infrastructure Developer Programming Kit (IDPK), which they are trying to establish an Open Source community around.
Python: Becoming Faster
Apparently, Python 3.11 is 25% faster than 3.10. This is part of a plan of the Python lords to double the speed of Python.
One way to improve Python speed is of course to remove the GIL.
German Researchers: Too naive when working with the Chinese?
Source: heise.de
Investigators of Follow the Money, Correctiv, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutsche Welle, Deutschlandfunk and others analysed collaborations of British and German researchers with Chinese researchers, and believe they are too open to provide dual-use IP.
Even German secret services seem concerned about this.
So, while the US is rip-and-replacing billions of dollars of Chinese hardware, the Europeans are overly eager to assist? Is there a middle ground somewhere?
Linux Foundation announces “Open Source Software Security Mobilization Plan”
Source: lwn.net, openssf.org
Quote:
During the Open Source Software Security Summit II in Washington, DC on May 12 – 13, 2022, The Linux Foundation and OpenSSF gathered a cross-section of open source developer and commercial ecosystem representatives along with leaders and experts from key U.S. federal agencies to reach a consensus on high-impact actions to take to improve the resiliency and security of open source software.
People banding together to drop $140MM over two years to improve open source software security. Sounds good!
GNOME Foundation posts high-level goals
Source: ramcq.net
Just a reminder that the GNOME Foundation and -project are doing great work, with a very people-centric approach. This plan they’ve posted revolves around three Initiatives:
- Welcoming Newcomers
- Diverse and sustainable Linux app ecosystem
- Local-first applications for the GNOME desktop
(I still use KDE, but this is still good).