Microchip Offers Reward for Opensource TCP/IP and USB

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last month, you undoubtedly have read about Dangerous prototypes stab at Microchip for not releasing the source code for the TCP/IP Stack and USB stacks used on the chipKIT Arduino Compatible boards. That single posting snowballed into a huge debate in the community on whether or not it really mattered if the stacks were open or not since Microchip lets anyone freely download them. Gene Apperson of Digilent was the first to respond with a posting on Hack A Day saying that it has been his intention from the beginning for the entire tool chain to be completely open and that Digilent’s decision to use the closed source stacks was simply based on the need to get something working quickly for the launch of the chipKIT Networking shield… More after the jump.

Microchip officially responded with a posting from Marc McComb  that read as follows:

“Hey Everyone: I’ve already posted this response on Dangerous Prototypes but thought I’d copy it on both Hackaday and Adafruit.

We (Microchip) read your blog and comments, and we do agree with you. Though we are a corporation, with a lot of suits (not really, actually I think we have a policy against suits), we know the community has been and is a large part of why Microchip successful today. We put our best code forward, but we know it has usage limitations. Clearly this is an area where we can do better. The points made in the blog are important, so we set up a meeting with our management team yesterday, and both our CEO and COO joined us because they too thought it was important. Really, we weren’t just playing Frisbee golf as you might have thought. We understand why you guys are upset and this is an issue we need to address. Bottom line, we can’t release our existing stacks because we have contractual obligations to many of our customers that prevent us from making them open source.

So how about this: We offer a prize for anyone who writes these stacks for the community. To get started, the two that we want to target are the TCP/IP and USB stacks. Heck, who better to write these than the experts in the community…? The goal is that the entries would be compatible with the chipKit MAX32 (PIC32MX795F512L). Digilent Inc. will help us decide which stack first meets the requirements. For our part, we will pony up the prize and provide technical support for those who want to get involved.

Thanks for all your posts and I’ll follow up with additional details shortly.”

He posted a follow up a few days later:

”Wanted to follow up on the previous post. I’ve posted this to Dangerous Prototypes and will also post to Adafruit’s blog as well. I’ve been spending the day going back and forth over some of the logistics of the competition (want to keep it fair and all) but have some preliminary news for you. Prizes look like they’ll be around $1000 for each stack developed/ported and that’s in your pocket. We’ll gross up the amount to cover the taxes. I spoke with our Development Tools team and they have 10 chipKIT MAX32 boards and Network Shields that they’ll donate to the first 10 people to sign up. Once all of the T’s are crossed and I’s dotted on the rules and regs, I’ll post them on a “contest” site along with the email address to get the free boards.”

Then today, Hack a Day announced that Microchip has finalized the details on the contest and will be offering a $1000 reward for each stack that is adopted by the chipKIT team:

”Ok…the contest page is finally up at http://www.microchip.com/stacks/. The submission email address is ChipKit.Contest@microchip.com. If you have any difficulties whatsoever, just post here and I’ll keep an eye on the blog. As for the 10 kits we have to give away, I kind of like the idea that the first 10 submissions will each get a kit. If anyone has any objections to this we can certainly modify this requirement based on suggestions. Nothing’s set in stone for that portion of the contest. Anyhoo…good luck!!”

If you are too lazy to click the link above, the official rules to the contest are posted below.

Contest rules and legal mumbo jumbo:

• Each stack will receive a bounty of $1000 for the contributor who comes in with the best workable solution. We mean $1000 in your pocket, so we will gross up to cover your taxes!
• We will take the 1st 5 working solutions for the USB and the 1st 5 working solutions for the TCP /IP stack based on the criteria below. One winner will be chosen for each stack. Please submit to ChipKit.Contest@microchip.com  and we will judge with Digilent which one is the best of the 5 that we see.

Criterion for Ethernet Stack:

A port of an existing open source Ethernet stack (e.g. Contiki) for the chipKIT Max32 with the following requirements:

• Functionality with the current chipKIT Ethernet Library
• i.e. Can run current examples
• DHCP and DNS must be supported
• All device specific code must be restricted to a single source file.

Criterion for USB Stack:

A port of the LUFA or other existing stack to the chipKIT MAX32 with the following requirements:

• All demos/class driver work without any API changes
• Examples must pass the USB Chapter 9 command verification program
• All device specific code must be restricted to a single source file
• This will imply device support only at this time
• USB Device Examples must work with current examples.

Although identical classes are not needed, sketches must function with the existing PC side code and LED behavior must be the same.

• In the event of a tie, ROM, RAM and Interrupt optimization techniques will be used to determine a winner.
• Winning submission for each stack will be posted to github taking advantage of features such as issue tracking. We expect that the winning developer will assist with reference resources to be created and added to the www.chipkit.cc/wiki. A stack specific section will be created on the www.chipkit.cc/forum to ensure end-user support.
• Send your submission to ChipKit.Contest@microchip.com.  Your submission must be your own development and may be based on existing open source software (as defined by www.opensource.org ).  All portions of your submission must be subject to a valid OSI-approved license.  Void where prohibited by law.  Winner agrees to take possession of the prize in the manner directed by Microchip and to promptly provide information and documents requested by Microchip for tax and eligibility purposes.

 So do you think you have what it takes to port an existing open source TCP/IP or USB stack to work with the ChipKIT MAX32 and Networking shield? We want to know what your take is on this and how you feel about the $1000 per stack prize so leave a comment below.