May 27 – 29, 2026
CERN
Europe/Zurich timezone
There is a live webcast for this event.
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The CERN Open Hardware Licence for FPGA Designs

May 29, 2026, 9:00 AM
25m
500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)

500/1-001 - Main Auditorium

CERN

400
Show room on map
Talk Solutions to everyday digital design problems Solutions to everyday digital design problems

Speaker

Javier Serrano (CERN)

Description

Version 2 of the CERN Open Hardware Licence was published in 2020 and approved by OSI in 2021. During its drafting, a great deal of thought and discussions were devoted to catering for the specificities of IC and FPGA design. The licence comes in three variants in order to give these communities appropriate tools for sharing in the three usual regimes: permissive (P), weakly-reciprocal (W) and strongly-reciprocal (S). The talk will cover the basics of licensing, differences between software, hardware and documentation licensing and practicalities such as how to use each of the licence variants in FPGA designs. The CERN OHL v2 was a community effort with many designers and legal experts involved. The presentation will also discuss the importance of open-sourcing, the new Open Source Program Office (OSPO) at CERN and how it can help FPGA designers share their work efficiently.

Talk's Q&A During the talk
Talk duration 20'+10'
Will you be able to present in person? Yes
If we are unable to accommodate your oral presentation, would you be willing to consider presenting a poster instead? No

Author

Javier Serrano (CERN)

Presentation materials