Hi Open Cores!

This is, by far, one of the most interesting communities on the web but I feel like I'm not really sure what's happening here beyond my narrow curiosities. So... I propose we (as a community) bring back the Newsletter!! It's been two years since the last publication (May 2013). I thought I would at least pitch the idea. I'd be happy to work on it, as well as contribute to the site a bit.

I agree with you wholeheartedly! However, some parts of this site just aren't very ... active. Indeed, sometimes it seems I can hear an echo in here. While I agree with you that this may be one of the most interesting communities on the web, it's also an exceptionally quiet community. I've personally been trying to liven up the forums here for exactly those reasons, but I often feel like I'm the only one here.

I'd wager you could post a newsletter to the forums if you wanted to. I'd certainly be interested in a newsletter highlighting projects just created, as well as those posting code for the first time or getting significant updates.

Just my two cents.

It was only after reading you reply (Dan) that I looked wider and noticed the open cores flagship project OpenRISC (http://opencores.org/news,1259570887). I had looked around before, but thought SoC meant something else (maybe it does)!

So I would say there's a need for pulling communication together on-site, communicating what's going on (and gone on).

The intended audience is a challenge.
* There are half-a-billion dollar ASIC programmes around with teams of awesome engineers, highly focussed and able
* Consultants offering custom program/build services in many tens of thousands of dollars, again highly able
* Pre-built cards / products so you don't need to go fully custom, but likely to be proprietary and/or niche.
* It would be great to go in-house, get some cards and start small but the initial learning curve is fiendish and the cost beyond experimental. (This is the area I would most like supported.)
* And there are lots of students (at least by the forums), working with university hardware and support.

Iterating news through the forums would be useful, and would work with the special activity mode here. Maybe it's just me, but when I'm flying the compiler I'm just not that communicative!

Regards, SteveH