EdgeRock Model License 1.0
Mandatory Supplement: Physical Hardwiring of Model Weights
Released model: EdgeRock-4B
License version: 1.0, 7 October 2026
Licensor: Rock Matrix (岩芯矩阵)
Licensing contact: jihs@stonehill-tech.com
Copyright 2026 Alibaba Cloud.
Copyright 2026 the EdgeRock contributors.
1. Scope and governing terms
This Supplement and the complete Apache License, Version 2.0, reproduced
below together form the EdgeRock Model License 1.0. They apply cumulatively,
not as alternative licenses. Within the scope of this Supplement, it
controls in the event of a conflict with the Apache terms.
"Licensor" means Rock Matrix (岩芯矩阵), acting as the copyright owner or
the entity authorized to grant this License for the covered EdgeRock material.
"You" has the meaning given in the Apache terms below.
"Covered Model" means the EdgeRock-4B trained text-model weights distributed
with this License, including its independent-memory weights, solely to the
extent of the EdgeRock modifications and derivative model as a whole that
the Licensor is entitled to license on these terms.
"Covered Variants" means versions made by incorporating or transforming
Covered Model weights, including further-trained, fine-tuned, merged,
quantized, pruned, compressed, decomposed, reordered or format-converted
weights, to the extent they contain or represent the covered weights.
Splitting weights across files, devices or components does not change this
scope. A model independently trained without incorporating covered weights
is not a Covered Variant merely because it uses the same architecture or
was trained on outputs of the Covered Model.
This Supplement does not alter the licenses of original Qwen3.5-4B
materials, separately licensed code or third-party materials. Unmodified
upstream visual-frontend weights, tokenizer and processor assets, and
upstream portions of configuration files retain their original licenses.
It does not revoke rights already validly granted. Sharing a repository,
package, interface or runtime with the Covered Model does not itself bring
a component within this Supplement.
2. Open permissions
Subject to this License, You may access, use, copy, study, modify, further
train, fine-tune, distill, quantize, deploy, host, sublicense and redistribute
the Covered Model and Covered Variants on a no-charge, royalty-free basis.
These permissions include commercial use, paid APIs, SaaS, private or
offline deployment, and charging for permitted services or copies.
Ordinary permitted uses require no separate commercial authorization,
registration, revenue threshold or user-count threshold.
You may use model outputs, generate synthetic data and train other models
on those outputs. This License does not automatically apply to ordinary
outputs or to models trained solely on them. It does not require disclosure
of Your application code, training data, training procedures or business
processes. Attribution, notices and the other applicable Apache obligations
remain in force.
3. Sole additional restriction: physical hardwiring of weights
Without separate written authorization from the Licensor, You may not
physically hardwire Covered Model or Covered Variant weights, in whole or
in a functional weight block, into a chip's non-reprogrammable physical
structure, or commission fabrication that does so.
"Physical hardwiring" means permanently encoding covered weight values or
equivalent representations of them in weight-specific circuit topology,
interconnects, mask-programmed ROM or fixed physical coefficients used for
model computation. Changing those encoded values requires refabrication
or alteration of the chip's physical structure, rather than writing model
data or reconfiguring programmable hardware.
A functional weight block is a set of weights that implements a model
operation or submodule. Generic mathematical constants, architecture
dimensions and operator settings alone are outside this restriction.
Quantizing, encoding, decomposing, reordering or splitting covered weights
does not exempt those weights if they remain physically hardwired as
defined above. Adding an updateable component does not change the status
of weights that remain physically hardwired.
4. Permitted hardware uses
Storing, loading, compiling, mapping and executing weights as model data
remain permitted, including on CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, programmable ASICs,
reconfigurable FPGAs, memory and rewritable compute-in-memory devices.
Preinstalling weights in a device, selling devices, and ordinary firmware
or storage distribution are permitted.
Read-only storage, non-volatility, write protection, offline operation,
a dedicated product purpose or a decision not to update a model does not
by itself constitute physical hardwiring. The names ROM, OTP, fuse or
antifuse do not alone determine whether the restriction applies; only
physical encoding of covered weights as defined in Section 3 does so.
Software, access-control or product-policy limits on updates are not
physical hardwiring. Calibration constants, security keys and device
identifiers that do not encode covered model weights are outside it.
Hardware design, compilation, simulation and supplying design files do
not themselves constitute physical hardwiring. This Supplement adds no
independent restriction on those activities or on distributing hardware.
The physical-hardwiring act described in Section 3 remains restricted.
Separately licensed software, independently trained models, architecture
ideas and generic operators remain outside this restriction. There are
no other additional field-of-use restrictions or royalties.
5. Redistribution
When redistributing the Covered Model or Covered Variants, include this
complete License and retain applicable attribution and notices. The
Supplement remains part of the license for covered EdgeRock material and
must not be omitted or represented as an Apache-only grant. No separate
recipient registration or signed agreement is required by this License.
These requirements do not relicense upstream materials, unrelated
software, ordinary outputs or independently trained models, and do not
require publication of proprietary applications, data or processes.
6. Interpretation
The English text is authoritative; translations are explanatory. The
Apache definitions, attribution requirements, patent provisions, warranty
disclaimer and liability limitations apply subject to the scope and
mandatory restriction above. Nothing in this License limits rights that
cannot be restricted under applicable law.
Apache License, Version 2.0
General terms incorporated into EdgeRock Model License 1.0
Apache License
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http://www.apache.org/licenses/
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