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Linux Foundation Newsletter: July 2023

Written by The Linux Foundation | Jul 20, 2023 1:00:00 PM

Welcome to the July edition of the Linux Foundation Newsletter! We have exciting announcements this month, including the launch of the Ultra Ethernet Consortium and two new reports on maintainers and standards from LF Research. Plus, don't miss the Embedded Open Source Summit highlights and exclusive training and certification discounts. As always, stay updated with the latest news from our Linux Foundation projects. 

Contents


Announcing the Ultra Ethernet Consortium

Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) is bringing together leading companies for industry-wide cooperation to build a complete Ethernet-based communication stack architecture for high-performance networking. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads are rapidly evolving and require best-in-class functionality, performance, interoperability, and total cost of ownership without sacrificing developer and end-user friendliness. The Ultra Ethernet solution stack will capitalize on Ethernet’s ubiquity and flexibility for handling a wide variety of workloads while being scalable and cost-effective.

Highlights from Embedded Open Source Summit 2023: A celebration of innovation

Image: Attendees enjoy Embedded Open Source Summit 2023 in Prague.

The Embedded Open Source Summit 2023, held in Prague, Czech Republic, was a resounding success, attracting industry experts, developers, and enthusiasts from the embedded systems community. The event featured diverse sessions focusing on different aspects of embedded systems. Additionally, keynote speakers provided valuable insights into various areas of the embedded ecosystem:

  • Dan Cauchy, Executive Director for Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), discussed AGL's approach to addressing fragmentation in the automotive industry through a single-platform strategy. AGL's code-first approach emphasizes innovation and software development across multiple automotive domains, with their market share in head unit operating systems reflecting industry support for open source solutions.
  • Anas Nashif highlighted the evolution of Zephyr from a firmware development platform to a comprehensive framework. Zephyr's reusable components and subsystems enhance functionality and drive innovation, with collaborations with organizations like Nordic and Google further strengthening its capabilities.

Image: Luka Mustafa displays an OpenCollar unit.

  • Luka Mustafa from IRNAS showcased the use of OpenCollar devices, running on Zephyr RTOS, for wildlife conservation. These devices track and monitor animals such as rhinos, empowering African communities through collaboration with SmartParks. The data collected plays a vital role in resource management and anti-poaching efforts.
  • Michael Gielda from Antmicro discussed how open source tools, such as the Visual System Designer, bring order to the complex hardware ecosystem. Antmicro's tools, including Renode and the Open Hardware Portal, support collaboration and facilitate block diagram creation and hardware exploration.
  • Keith Short from Google presented their experience with Zephyr RTOS and why they use it for their embedded controllers in Chromebooks. He also gave a preview of all of the products that run on Zephyr that are currently available in the marketplace. 
  • David VomLehn highlighted the significant role of open source software in the space industry, emphasizing its reliability and potential for innovation. Astra's rocket and satellite development success demonstrates the use of open source software, which addresses challenges such as radiation effects and regulatory compliance.

The Embedded Linux Summit 2023 served as a valuable platform for knowledge sharing, collaboration, and inspiration, showcasing the diverse applications of open source technology. Attendees left the event motivated to continue pushing the boundaries of open source in the embedded Linux domain. EOSS videos can be found here. 

Image: Attendees at Zephyr Developer Summit 2023

The Zephyr Developer Summit (ZDS) held concurrently at EOSS was geared towards users of Zephyr, developers contributing upstream, and maintainer-specific topics. A few of the popular sessions included a history of Zephyr 9 years in the making, how to build an open source smartwatch using Zephyr, brewing beer with Zephyr, Android, and Thingsboard and a “Meet the Maintainers” BoF that allowed the community to provide feedback, ask questions and learn more about how to become a maintainer. Videos from the event are now available here. 

  • One of the other highlights of ZDS 2023 was the branded kites that the Zephyr Project gave away at their booth. In fact, several of the attendees went out and flew their kites during the breaks or received a quick lesson on how to do it from a Linux Foundation staff member, shown below.

Image: AI rendering of Maemalynn Meanor of the Zephyr Project demonstrating kite flying (Jason Perlow, Bing Image Creator)

The Safety-Critical Software Summit, also at EOSS, sponsored by the ELISA Project, gathered safety experts and developers to enable and advance the use of open source in safety-critical applications. Some popular sessions included Linux in aerospace, coding guidelines, wolfBoot, and Real-time Linux in safety-critical systems. Videos from the event are now available on-demand here. 

Training & Certification deals

Level up your continuing IT education, save up to $400 on training courses and certifications through July 30, and get a FREE gift with your purchase. Shop now!

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More than 500 winners from 80 countries were selected for the 2023 Shubhra Kar Linux Foundation training scholarship. Read about it here:

New research on open source maintainers & standards

Open Source Maintainers: Exploring the people, practices, and constraints facing the world’s most critical open source software projects explores the pivotal role of individuals maintaining our tech infrastructure. Drawing from in-depth interviews with influential maintainers, the study reveals key insights into their experiences, strategies, and challenges. It highlights 41 best practices, including promoting inclusive language, transparency, systematic documentation, consistent funding, and diversity through mentorship.

The 2023 State of Open Standards delves into standardization practices within information and computing technology. It seeks to understand the organizational motivations for decisions to create and use standards, specifically exploring open versus closed standards. Based on a community survey, the findings indicate a preference for open standards, acknowledging their considerable value, and also identify some significant challenges to consider when implementing these standards. 

Participate in Linux Foundation Research surveys

2023 State of Open Source in Financial Services Survey

  • Calling all in financial services! Now in its 3rd year, this study returns by popular demand. FINOS and Linux Foundation Research have joined forces once again to examine open source adoption, contribution, and readiness in the financial services sector. This survey intends to delve into the role of open source within financial organizations, provide year-over-year insights, and ultimately support the open source in the financial services community to better address challenges.

OpenSSF Software Security Awareness Survey

  • Participate in the OpenSSF Software Security Awareness Survey to share your views on initiatives like Sigstore, Alpha-Omega, Best Practices Badge, Scorecard, and SLSA.

Upcoming events

The city of Bilbao, Spain, at night, watercolor. (Jason Perlow, Bing Image Creator)

To register (for in-person attendance or virtual), please view our full calendar of events here, and be sure to subscribe to our events newsletter. Check out our Flickr stream for photos of past events!

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Attendees enjoy the Women & Nonbinary in Embedded Lunch at Embedded Open Source Summit 2023.

  • The Women & Non-Binary in Embedded Lunch at Embedded Open Source Summit was an incredible way to kick off the conference. The absence of formal presentations and talks allowed attendees to connect personally and engage in meaningful conversations. The room was filled with excitement as people from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise came together to support and inspire each other. Discussions covered a range of subjects such as professional growth, navigating work environments, allyship, and advocating for inclusivity.
  • Check out our Diversity & Inclusivity resources page; Diversity Scholarships are offered for events. For more eligibility information and how to apply, please visit the individual event’s website (all listed here), click the “Attend” tab, and select the “Registration Scholarships” option. 
  • The Linux Foundation's Travel Fund provides open source developers and community members with financial support to attend events they otherwise could not and prioritizes those from underrepresented or lower socioeconomic groups. Learn more about the fund and how to apply.

LFX Mentorship

  • Summer 2023 LFX Mentorships are underway. Projects include CNCF, GraphQL, Hyperledger, LF Networking, Linux Kernel, OpenHPC, Open Mainframe Project, and RISC-V.
  • Stay tuned for the upcoming Fall sessions by visiting the LFX Mentorship Program site to check eligibility, browse, and apply.

Linux Foundation project news and updates

Go Gopher (Image: entgo.io)

LF AI & Data

    • New Release: Trusted AI/AIX 360 Our latest version, 0.3.0, provides enhanced interpretability for datasets and Machine Learning models with the help of advanced algorithms and time series support. Discover its capabilities here.
    • ML Security Committee Meetings take place on the second Thursday of each month. Reach out to Alejandro Saucedo at a@ethical.institute if you're interested in joining and contributing to the LF & AI ML Security Committee.
    • Call for Papers: “AI for People: Democratizing AI.” Submit your research for the upcoming Conference (CAIP’23) in Bologna, Italy, from 24-26th November 2023.
  • New Blog Posts:
    • "Harnessing the power of open source for Ethical AI Governance": A thorough exploration of the crucial role diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) play in shaping AI policy and governance and the steps our AI & Data community is taking to champion DEI.
    • "Egeria Mid-Year Review": Get updated with the latest on Egeria version 4.0, which features performance improvements, an upgraded Java Level, Gradle-only build capabilities, an updated Spring Framework, and the removal of deprecated functions.
    • "Machine Learning System Security: Risks and Best Practices": Authored by Alejandro Saucedo, this piece provides an insightful analysis of the security challenges and best practices when dealing with production machine learning systems.

Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC)

  • The Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC) successfully hosted and co-organized the Confidential Computing Summit, which surpassed registration expectations and had standing-room-only attendance for every talk.
  • Plans are already in progress for a larger two-day event next year.
  • Visit the CCC at DEF CON in Las Vegas from August 10-13 in the IOT Village.
  • The Open Enclave SDK (OESDK) has released version 0.19.2.
  • The Confidential Computing Wikipedia page is now published.

CDF

  • Continuous Delivery Mini Summit announced for September 18 in Bilbao, Spain, alongside Open Source Summit Europe.
  • New Workshop Series launched on Continuous Delivery, with the first session focusing on securing CI/CD pipelines from code to deployment. Recording available.
  • State of Continuous Delivery Report 2023 now available in Japanese. It was covered by a Techstrong TV Panel, featured in a new blog post, and covered by various press outlets. Read more.

CNCF

Delta Lake

We are excited to announce the preview release of Delta Lake 3.0.0! View the preview release notes.

New blogs: 

Data+AI Summit 2023 

LF Energy

  • LF Energy Summit videos from 36 sessions are now available to watch for free.
  • Learn about the benefits of using EVerest open source software for EV charging station manufacturers.
  • Case study on LF Energy's CoMPAS project solving IEC 61850 data model challenges for Dutch power grid operators.
  • New release of FlexMeasures client (v.0.1) and FlexMeasures main tool (v.0.14) with significant updates.
  • OperatorFabric v.3.15.1.RELEASE, a robust platform for systems operators, is now available.
  • LF Energy RTDIP developers explore exciting Generative AI approaches for querying structured data.
  • Highlights from the third Power Grid Model meet-up in the Netherlands.
  • Release of powsybl-dependencies 2023.2.1, concluding the last PowSyBl release train.
  • Savoir-faire Linux pays tribute to late founder Dr. Shuli Goodman by naming a meeting room after her.
  • Update on LF Energy's FledgePOWER project in an episode of State of Energy.
  • LF Research report on the microgrid market and the potential of open source technology for global adoption. Watch a video with Anna Hermansen of LF Research to review the findings.
  • Diginomica article on the role of microgrids in building the electrical internet.

FINOS

  • Read about the highlights from our London Open House and Member Meeting events in our latest blog.
  • Join the recently launched Zenith Emerging Technologies SIG. Learn more in the recent press release.
  • Version 4.0 of CDM (Common Domain Model) has been released. Visit the CDM Github repo to explore the advancements introduced in version 4.0.
  • Launch of new FDC3 2.0 conformance program & new certified desktop agents. Read more here.
  • Join the FINOS DEI Special Interest Group (SIG)
  • Join the FINOS All Community Call - August 9th. Register here. 
  • We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all our sponsors for the upcoming Open Source in Finance Forum New York, taking place on November 1st at the New York Marriott Marquis. Special recognition goes to our Leader sponsor, Databricks, as well as our valued contributor and community sponsors: Adaptive/Aeron, Discover, FinOps Foundation, instaclustr, mend, Open Mainframe Project, Red Hat, and Tidelift. Your support is greatly appreciated!
  • Participate in the 2023 State of Open Source in Financial Services Survey.

Green Software Foundation

Hyperledger Foundation

LF Networking

  • Join the LFN and LF Edge ecosystems in Bilbao, Spain, for ONE Summit Regional Day: Spain, co-located with Open Source Summit Europe on September 18. Add the co-lo event to your main OSS registration for only $20 USD. 
  • Registration for the Fall LFN Developer & Testing Forum is now open November 13-16 in Budapest, Hungary. Register today to join developers across the open networking ecosystem to innovate on the future of networking together in real-time. 
  • Session videos from the June 2023 virtual LFN Developer & Testing Forum are now available for streaming.
  • Learn how LFN’s FD.io VPP helps enterprises accelerate digital transformation and optimize their IT architectures in a new user story ( featuring a customer of member company Intel): “NSFOCUS Builds a New Generation High-Performance Data-plane Processing Engine for Network Security using FD.io VPP.”
  • LF General Manager of Networking, Edge, and IoT, Arpit Joshipura, shared insights on the state of the open networking ecosystem this past May at the ONE Summit Regional Day, co-located with Open Source Summit Vancouver. Read the summary blog post to see what’s on the horizon and where open source is leading the next wave of innovation.  
  • The LFN community is mourning the loss of one of its pioneering community members, AL Morton, and has posted an In Memorium message to show support. 

OpenJS Foundation

  • Open Visualization Collaboration Space celebrates 1 year at the foundation with significant project growth.
  • Projects experiencing growth: kepler.gl, deck.gl, loaders.gl, react-map-gl, and vis.gl.

Open Mainframe Project

  • Open Mainframe Project welcomes 11 mentees this summer for eight mentorships, including ADE, COBOL Check, COBOL Programming Course, Software Discovery Tool, and Zowe. Meet the mentees and mentors here. 
  • Lionel B. Dyck, Open Mainframe Project Ambassador and Contributor to CBT Tape describes a collection of tools for working with zFS datasets that the author either developed or created an ISPF dialog to drive. Learn more here.
  • I am a Mainframer – meet Zareen Rydhan, Software Development Engineer in Test II and Lead Test Automation Engineer with Rocket Software. 
  • Open Mainframe Project announces full schedule for Open Mainframe Summit Las Vegas, which takes place on September 11 at the MGM Gand Hotel as part of IBM’s TechXchange Community Day.  

LF Edge

  • Discover the limitless possibilities of edge computing with LF Edge's latest use cases! From building a common Edge platform with EdgeX Foundry to scaling retail applications at Edge locations with LF Edge projects, such as Open Horizon, FIDO Device Onboard, and EdgeX Foundry, we are revolutionizing the future of Edge Computing. Find all use cases here.
  • Take a look at the latest trends in Edge Computing architecture in the latest LF Edge webinar. The expert panel discussed how edge architectures are evolving, including the rise of WebAssembly to complement technologies such as Kubernetes, Docker, and Virtual Machines.

Nephio

  • Nephio session recordings at the Developer & Testing Forum in June are posted on YouTube. Check out the session recordings here and get updated on the latest progress in the community. 
  • Nephio R1 is going live this month, with key features including a new framework using Nephio to orchestrate cloud native network functions, new user stories, enhanced user experience, and more! Subscribe to the Nephio LinkedIn page and watch for the official announcement. 

SONiC


  • SONiC 202305 release is out! Check out the release features and get involved in the community.
  • SONiC community has hosted a SONiC Mini Summit at the Open Source Summit in Vancouver. Check out the event recap and session recordings. 
  • With over 2,500 attendees, SONiC Forum has successfully concluded at the 3rd Network Open Source Technology Ecological Summit in China. Read the event recap on SONiC blog.
  • We are thrilled to announce the SONiC regional event in Hyderabad on September 6: SONiC Workshop India 2023. Check out the event’s page for more details!

OpenSSF


Open Programmable Infrastructure (OPI) Project

  • OPI was on-site at SmartNIC Summit last month with a keynote presentation, a half-day tutorial, and several related sessions by contributors and members from AMD, Arm, Dell, F5, Intel, Keysight Technologies, and Marvell. Learn more in this recap by Paul Pindell, OPI Outreach chair. 

OS-Climate

PyTorch Foundation

  • Membership is now open for companies to join the PyTorch Foundation! Being a part of the PyTorch Foundation grants opportunities to help build the future of end-to-end machine learning frameworks alongside industry peers.
  • Call for proposals, and registration is open for PyTorch Conference 2023! We want to hear about production, research, use cases, and responsible AI. CFP closes Friday, July 21, 2023.
  • The first PyTorch Docathon happened May 31- June 15, bringing in new contributors to PyTorch. Entrants were judged on the difficulty of submissions that resulted in over 40 merged pull requests, the publication of four new tutorials, and the addition of one new example.
  • We introduced ultra-low latency inference on LLaMA, the powerhouse language model accelerated by PyTorch/XLA on Google Cloud TPU.
  • We welcomed several new ecosystem projects this month, including TIAToolbox, TorchOpt, and USB. Read about them on our Medium blog.

RISC-V

  • Introduction to RISC-V Landscape: Discover our continuously updated living document that provides invaluable insights into the diverse RISC-V ecosystem.
  • RISC-V Summit Europe: Missed the summit? View all the presentations on our YouTube playlist featuring keynotes, tech talks, panels, and more from the three-day event.
  • RISC-V Summit, Santa Clara: Don't miss the upcoming summit from 7-8 November. Register now and take advantage of sponsorship opportunities.
  • 2023 RISC-V Summit China: Experience innovation at its best from August 23-25 in Beijing. Stay tuned for free registration.

June Ratifications:

  • Zvfh/Zvfhmin Ratification: The ratification supports vectors of IEEE 754-2008 binary16 values, with the Zvfhmin extension providing minimal support.
  • RISC-V Advanced Interrupt Architecture: An extension to the standard Privileged Architecture, this includes two standard interrupt controllers - Advanced Platform-Level Interrupt Controller (APLIC) and Incoming Message-Signaled Interrupt Controller (IMSIC).
  • RISC-V IOMMU Architecture Specification: Outlines an IOMMU connecting DMA-capable I/O devices to system memory.

Yocto Project

Zephyr

  • Analog Devices, Arduino, and Technology Innovation Institute join the Zephyr Project just as it launches its 3.4 release. Read about why they joined and what they’ll do with the RTOS here.
  • The Zephyr 3.4 release is now available thanks to 491 contributors and 91 maintainers, which equates to 220K + lines of code added and support for more than 30 boards. Read the news in Chinese here.
  • Antmicro shares a tutorial about how to use Zephyr RTOS as a bootloader for Linux on RISC-V platforms here.

LF in the media

Security:

  • OpenSSF scorecard reveals security vulnerabilities in popular open source generative AI projects on GitHub. [Link]
  • SPDX and LF play a role in securing medical devices through the use of SBOMs. [Link]

Artificial Intelligence and NLP:

  • Increasing demand for NLP skills, including PyTorch, is covered, emphasizing the industry's focus on natural language processing. [Link]
  • PyTorch 2.0 enhances AMD GPU performance, a significant development for the industry. [Link, Link, Link, Link]
  • The launch of Delta Lake 3.0 at Databricks + AI Summit contributes to LF's initiatives. [Link]

RISC-V Innovations:

  • Linux 6.4 introduces exciting advancements in RISC-V technology. [Link]
  • Coverage of a new partnership with AMD, Samsung VMware, and members of the RISC-V Keystone project to simplify the development and operations of confidential computing applications [Link]
  • Chinese researchers employ AI to design a 32-bit RISC-V chip in five hours, showcasing the power of artificial intelligence. [Link, Link]
  • A young hacker builds a "fully compliant RISC-V computer" within a Terraria console, demonstrating the appeal of RISC-V among enthusiasts. [Link]
  • Jim Kellerman, founder of Tenstorrent, plans to rival Nvidia in the AI chip space, shaping the industry's landscape. [Link]
  • Ai-Thinker releases an affordable RISC-V dev board suitable for Matter connectivity, advancing AIoT solutions. [Link]
  • Developing a customized RISC-V core for MEMS (which could be used for medical devices and other types of physical measurements. [Link]

Kubernetes and Container Orchestration:

  • CNCF CTO Chris Aniszczyk discusses the evolving role of Kubernetes, extending its orchestration capabilities beyond containers to other contexts like Wasm Apps. [Link]
  • Securing Kubernetes by thinking holistically is highlighted in an informative article. [Link]

Blockchain and Hyperledger:

  • Hyperledger Fabric-based platform facilitates the first cross-border copper concentrate trial shipment processed on blockchain technology by BHP and China Minmetals. [Link]
  • Brazil's Central Bank uploads Central Bank Digital Currency files to GitHub, indicating a potential rollout leveraging Hyperledger Besu. [Link]
  • The importance of open source for cloud native security, particularly for projects like Kubernetes, is examined. [Link]

Overture Maps Foundation:

  • An interview with Overture’s Executive Director Marc Prioleau explores how open map and geolocation data fuel innovation. [Link]
  • Near Media's influential local media and location consultancy blog delves into Overture and Marc, providing valuable insights. [Link]
  • The release of Overture Maps Data Schema and Reference System exemplifies LF's dedication to open source and community-driven foundational technology. [Link, Link, Link, Link]
  • Overture’s Executive Director Marc Prioleau attended Esri User Conference in San Diego to discuss Overture's role in supporting open mapping initiatives from public agencies.[Link]

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