XMOS Limited

Business type

Open Innovation

Service/product description

XMOS designs and creates the revolutionary event-driven XCore processors, the XC concurrent programming tools and the XMOS applications software library.

XMOS designers enjoy the fastest route from idea to product, using standard programmable chips to create complete systems combining interface, DSP and control software. For entrepreneurs, students and designers in leading electronics brands, XMOS enables innovation and dramatically reduces costs.

What does 'openness' mean in this case?

XMOS fully understands and supports the principles of open innovation.

XMOS is committed to demonstrating openness in four specific areas – tools, software, hardware board designs, and support for community projects and entrepreneurship.

The XMOS XC compiler is being ported to LLVM to go alongside the current C and C++ compilers. Once this is complete there will be a complete, free open-source suite of design flow tools, from high-level programming languages in an Eclipse-based GUI to loading and debugging software on the embedded development cards. These tools can be downloaded from the XMOS website.

XMOS has created a variety of software modules for specific hardware interfaces – such as USB, Ethernet, SPI, I2C, etc. The source code for these interfaces is open and available free of charge from the XMOS website.

Furthermore, XMOS has created a range of hardware board designs for evaluation kits and reference designs based around the XMOS silicon technology. All of these designs have been open-sourced and have been made available publicly on the XMOS website for use and development by members of the community.

Finally, XMOS is committed to the principles of open community collaboration – enabling exploration, creativity and entrepreneurship to develop. XMOS created the XCore Exchange website (www.xcore.com) as a place for developers, amateurs, entrepreneurs, academics and businesses to come together to share ideas, projects, products, and connect with other individuals with a common interest in the XMOS technology.

XMOS is exploring how to support open-source software and hardware development projects, hackspaces, academic programs (www.xmos.com/uni) and welcomes input from individuals with ideas of how XMOS technology can benefit open development.