LONDON, UK, 11 August, 2017 - RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the global distributor for engineers, is sponsoring ORConf, an open source digital design and embedded systems conference that covers from the transistor level up to Linux user space and beyond — featuring presentations and discussion on free and open source IP projects, implementations on FPGA and in silicon, verification, EDA tools, licensing and embedded software, to name but a few.

Conference hosts in previous years have included University of Bologna and CERN, and this year ORConf is being hosted as part of the Wuthering Bytes technology festival in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire (UK). Stefan Wallentowitz, a director of conference organisers The Free and Open Source Silicon Foundation, said: “We’re thrilled to be joining the Wuthering Bytes festival for ORConf 2017 and it’s really great to have the support of RS Components as a major sponsor of the conference this year”.

Pete Wood, Head Technology Evangelist at RS commented: “We are seeing a significant growth in interest in open source digital design, due in part to lower cost and increasingly capable FPGA development platforms, but also thanks to increased online collaboration and the relatively new RISC-V open instruction set (ISA) architecture gaining in popularity. RS have long been supporters of Wuthering Bytes and this year we are delighted to be able to support ORConf, which fits well with our mission of empowering engineers, spreading knowledge, enabling design reuse and fostering collaboration.”

Wuthering Bytes 2017 will take place over the course of 10 days, running from 1st - 10th September, with ORConf being hosted on Friday 8th through to Sunday 10th. For further details see the ORConf and Wuthering Bytes websites:

https://orconf.org

wutheringbytes.com

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About RS Components

RS Components and Allied Electronics are the trading brands of Electrocomponents plc, the global distributor for engineers. With operations in 32 countries, we offer more than 500,000 products through the internet, catalogues and at trade counters to over one million customers, shipping more than 44,000 parcels a day. Our products, sourced from 2,500 leading suppliers, include electronic components, electrical, automation and control, and test and measurement equipment, and engineering tools and consumables.

Electrocomponents is listed on the London Stock Exchange and in the last financial year ended 31 March 2016 had revenues of £1.29bn.

For more information, please visit the website at www.rs-online.com.

About The Free and Open Source Silicon Foundation

The Free and Open Source Silicon (FOSSi) Foundation is a non-profit foundation with the mission to promote and assist free and open digital hardware designs and related ecosystems. FOSSi Foundation operates open, inclusive and vendor-independent to promote open standards development and use, support and organise community events, and encourage industry, academia and individual participation in open source IP design.

For more information, please visit the website at fossi-foundation.org.

About Wuthering Bytes

Wuthering Bytes is an annual festival of technology that takes place in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire (UK), that serves as a celebration of technology in everyday life and beyond, with a strong focus on open source, collaboration and sharing.

Now in its fifth year, in 2017 the festival will take place over 1st to 10th September, featuring talks and workshops on topics including the history of computing, particle physics, spacecraft thermal engineering, LPWAN and IoT, and open source digital design.

Further information is available via these links:

Twitter: @RSComponents; @alliedelec; @designsparkRS; @FossiFoundation; @wutheringbytes

RS Components on Linkedin

www.linkedin.com/company/rs-components

Relevant Links:

Electrocomponents plc

www.electrocomponents.com

RS Components

www.rs-online.com

www.rs-online.com/designspark

orconf.org

wutheringbytes.com

fossi-foundation.org