who_we_are.mdwn

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   2 LibreSOC strives to deliver a fully capable and competitive mass volume Libre integrated System on Chip for use in chromebooks, smartphone, tablets and industrial boards. We want to maximize the degree of trust a customer can place in their processor. We do this by providing the customer the freedom to study, modify, and redistribute the the bootloader and Operating System full source code *and* the full SoC source from HDL to VLSI.
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   4 Right now, we're targeting a (quad core, 800mhz, dual issue, GPU, VPU, [and later an ML inference core] ) SOC.
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   6 See our [[3d_gpu/mission_statement]]
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   8 ## Why a Libre SOC?
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  10 Its quite hard to guarantee that a performant processors (think pipelined, out-of-order) are functionally perfectly correct. In fact, it often turns out that they [aren’t](https://meltdownattack.com).
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  12 There are entire [dissertations](http://www.kroening.com/diss/diss-kroe.pdf) dedicated to the subject matter of merely functionally verifying a pipeline (this doesn’t even consider out of order execution).
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  14 Given the fact that performant bug-free processors no longer exist, how can you trust your processor? The next best thing is to have access to a processor’s design files. Not only have access to them, you must have the freedom to study and improve them.
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  16 Such a processor is referred to as a Libre processor. However, processors themselves are only a part of the picture. Nowadays, most contemporary computing tasks involve artificial intelligence, media consumption, wireless connectivity, etc... Thus, we must deliver an entire LibreSOC.
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  18 ## Benefits: Privacy, Safety-Critical, Peace of Mind...
  19 Our LibreSOC will not have backdoors that plague modern [processors](https://www.csoonline.com/article/3220476/researchers-say-now-you-too-can-disable-intel-me-backdoor-thanks-to-the-nsa.html).
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  21 There is a very real need for reliable safety critical processors (think airplane, smart car, nuclear power plant, pacemaker...).
  22 LibreSOC posits that it is impossible to trust a processor in a safety critical environment without both access
  23 to that processor's source and a cycle accurate HDL simulator that guarantees developers their code behaves as they
  24 expect. An ISA level simulator is no longer satisfactory.
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  26 Refer to this [IEEE article](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4519604) by Cyberphysical System expert Ed-Lee for more details.
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  28 ## Still Have Questions?
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  30 Read about the business and practical benefits of a LibreSOC below.
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  32 [[why_a_libresoc]]