FPGAs and Open Design Circuits
Reinoud Lamberts' site, Open Design Circuits, was the first
to propose creating a hardware design community in
the spirit of free software. In theory, FPGAs would allow the
exchange of free designs electronically, just as programs can be
exchanged. In practice, the community which grew around the site could never
agree on whether free designs needed free software (which didn't exist
then) or could use commercial freeware, and in the end no actual designs
were created in the site itself. But the discussions involved large numbers
of people, many of whom went on to become involved in other free
hardware design ventures - it was the first time so many people had
seriously discussed what was practical and what was not. Rather than creating
a single site, Open Design Circuits laid the ground
for a whole community.
The site is sadly now defunct (though Reinoud Lamberts happily isn't, and
is now busy developing free virtual FPGAs). For historical interest we have
local copies of: