Open Source

Western Digital believes in the value of open source as a user and contributor. We recognize open source's critical role in the growth and success of the technology industry today because it encourages a community to innovate, build, and share together. Western Digital also sees open source as a critical building block to its overall corporate and business strategy.

OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
 

Western Digital contributes to and maintains many open source projects. Here are some examples of our work.

Linux Kernel

RISC-V

Sweet B

OpenTitan

Western Digital Github

Open Source Organizations

Whether as a founder, member, or supporter, Western Digital works with the community to foster open source.

RISC-V Foundation

We are a founding member of the RISC-V Foundation, the steward of the RISC-V ISA. RISC-V ISA is a free and open ISA enabling a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration.

CHIPS Alliance

We are a founding member of CHIPS Alliance. The CHIPS Alliance develops high-quality, open source hardware designs relevant to silicon devices and FPGAs.

Linux Foundation

We are a silver member of the Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral, trusted hub for developers to code, manage, and scale open technology projects. Under the Linux Foundation umbrella are many projects that we collaborate with.

FOSSi Foundation

We work with the FOSSi Foundation on various initiatives related to RISC-V and CHIPS Alliance, including the cocotb project and Embench benchmark. FOSSi Foundation’s mission is to promote and assist free and open digital hardware designs and their related ecosystems.

GPL Cooperation Commitment

As a user of and contributor to many open source projects licensed under version 2 of the GPL family of licensees, we recognize that open source compliance may be difficult and may result in mistakes. To grow the open source community and allow for good-faith actors to use our contributions under the GPL, we commit as follows:

Our Commitment


Before filing or continuing to prosecute any legal proceeding or claim (other than a Defensive Action) arising from termination of a Covered License, Western Digital commits to extend to the person or entity (“you”) accused of violating the Covered License the following provisions regarding cure and reinstatement, taken from GPL version 3. As used here, the term ‘this License’ refers to the specific Covered License being enforced.

However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice.

Western Digital intends this Commitment to be irrevocable, and binding and enforceable against Western Digital and assignees of or successors to Western Digital’s copyrights.

Western Digital may modify this Commitment by publishing a new edition on this page or a successor location.

Definitions


'Covered License' means the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2), the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 (LGPLv2.1), or the GNU Library General Public License, version 2 (LGPLv2), all as published by the Free Software Foundation.

'Defensive Action' means a legal proceeding or claim that Western Digital brings against you in response to a prior proceeding or claim initiated by you or your affiliate.

'Western Digital' means Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates.

Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct

We recognize that open source is built by healthy communities. We believe a healthy community will thrive when all participants are treated with and treat others with care and respect. To show our commitment to this idea, we have adopted the Contributor Covenant to govern all our open source projects and the conduct of all Western Digital contributors in our projects and in the larger open source community.

Open Source in our Products


We believe in open source and use it in many of our products. When we use open source in our software, we identify the open source we use in a Third-Party Notices section typically found in the help section. For our hardware products, the Third-Party Notices can be found in the accompanying software or in the product documentation. For open source licenses that require we provide the source code, you can find the source code for the relevant product on our support site. If you believe we have missed something, click here to contact us.

Many of our products are built by OpenChain conformant processes. OpenChain is an open ISO standard (ISO/IEC 5230) for open source compliance that lays out best practices in using open source to build trusted supply chains. As a Platinum Member and board member during the ISO certification process, Western Digital believes in the benefit of OpenChain conformance.

[O]pen source: our view at Western Digital is that the most secure solutions are based on open and inspectable implementations combined with transparent policies and security practices. 

Richard New, Vice President, R&D Engineering

Open source silicon requires thinking about chip development in new ways. Western Digital has been at the forefront of this new technology, demonstrated by joining OpenTitan as one of our first commercial partners and the recent publication of their family of SweRV RISC-V cores. As RISC-V and open source silicon become increasingly ubiquitous throughout our industry, we look forward to building this open silicon future together with all contributors. 

Dominic Rizzo, OpenTitan Project Director, Google

Careers

At Western Digital, our engineers use open source in many of our products and also contribute back. Please see our careers page for the latest opportunities.

Open Source Blog

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