18th Embedded Talk: Open Source Hardware – Multiple Incentives, Multiple Pitfalls

The 18th Embedded Talk will take place on March 21, 2025, 1:00 pm on the premises of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg at Erlangen Südgelände (Cauerstr. 11, Erlangen, lecture hall H12). Immerse yourself into the world of  Open Source Hardware and find out more about the latest developments in this field.

There is a great desire on the part of many industrial companies as well as politicians to reduce their dependency on hardware components in their products, primarily from American and Asian companies. As a result, there is a growing demand for national and European processor and system developments that are not proprietary or subject to complex intellectual property rights. One example of this is the RISC-V processor initiative. In order for Germany and Europe as a whole to be able to develop hardware components, in particular complete processor systems, themselves in future or to be able to use and market existing hardware more easily in their products, it is important to investigate promising alternatives in the direction of open source hardware. While open source is currently the norm rather than the exception in the software sector, even in the area of embedded systems, the opposite is true for hardware components.

Important research questions here concern formats for the reusable exchange of so-called IP (intellectual property) blocks, questions of the portability of such modules between tools, questions of licensing as well as research into new business models and marketing despite or precisely because of open source hardware. Conversely, there are questions about the safe use of freely available hardware, particularly with regard to security. This concerns, for example, questions of protection against attacks if the hardware is no longer an anchor of trust per se, but how downloaded hardware modules can be checked for trustworthiness, freedom from side-channel attacks or Trojans. This also applies to checking corresponding synthesis tools for trustworthiness. Furthermore, it is necessary to investigate how libraries of open source hardware can be set up and how suitable modules can be searched for and found in them. The question also arises as to how OSH modules can be automatically integrated into synthesis flows and design tools.

The Embedded Talk is an established series of events that is an ideal information and communication forum to promote regular exchange between experts from science and industry.

Program

Note: This Embedded Talk will be held in English.

Venue

Campus Südgelände
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Emmy-Noether-Hörsaal (H12)
Cauerstraße 11, 91058 Erlangen

Registration

Register here (free of charge)

Category: Embedded Talk, News