Hardware hacker Bunnie Huang answers questions at Slashdot. [beta.slashdot.org]

I found it an interesting read particularly with respect to his comments when asked about the possibility of a complete open source tool chain and software chain from silicon to finished product.

Says Bunnie in part when telling about how he looked at making an open source IC to replace an Atmel AVR...

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So at the end of the day, the idea of having a BSD-style “make universe” in hardware is tantamount to writing a manual for rebooting civilization from the ground up to the point of manufacturing silicon.

He also talks a bit about a project at Cambridge that is looking to fab open source silicon and says they are pretty close.