CHIPS Alliance Governance

The CHIPS Alliance is a directed fund of The Linux Foundation, a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization.  Following best practices in the industry, we maintain a clear and consistent separation of responsibilities between technical and non-technical governance decisions.

In addition to the top-level structure of The CHIPS Alliance, each hosted open source project has its own process, structure, and community.  While the Technical Steering Community (TSC) sets high-level technical policy, projects have a great deal of flexibility in day-to-day operations.

The General Manager works with the Governing Board, our members, and our projects to ensure the CHIPS Alliance is a healthy, sustainable, and neutral home for open source technical collaborations.

Rob Mains is a 38 year industry veteran, former engineering vice president of Oracle and Sun Microsystems distinguished engineer, where he lead an organization of over 200 software researchers and developers. Prior to this, Rob was a principal engineer at Magma Design Automation, and originally a senior engineer at IBM involved in numerous technical areas for the development of IBM Power and S/390 systems.

Rob has in depth experience in software development, electronic design automation, IT management, semiconductor technology, microprocessor circuit design, and chip construction methodology. In his career, has had the privilege of working in multi-company collaborations, understanding the dynamics of multiple players, and working towards win-win solutions for all. He is the holder of 13 U.S. patents.

The Governing Board sets overall policy through our participation agreement and technical charter, which describes the membership requirements and responsibilities of participants.

The Technical Steering Committee, or TSC, is responsible for the technical oversight of the CHIPS Alliance.  The TSC is responsible for implementing technical policy and procedures within the scope and direction of the policies set by the Governing Board, such as defining and maintaining neutral consensus on the technical vision for CHIPS Alliance projects, shepherding projects through their technical lifecycle, and identifying, recruiting, and engaging prospective projects.

The TSC operates openly and transparently, and consists of elected representatives from each CHIPS Alliance workgroup. TSC meetings are open to all, and both members and non-members may earn the right to participate in all TSC governance processes.

The Outreach Committee is responsible for organizing the external presence of the CHIPS Alliance.