# Welcome to Libre-SOC
(formerly Libre-RISCV)

> We're building a chip. A fast chip. A safe chip. A trusted chip.

> A chip with lots of peripherals. And a VPU.  And a 3D GPU...

> Oh and here, have the [source code](http://git.libre-riscv.org)...

Sounds cool? Learn more about the [why](why_a_libresoc) behind Libre-SOC
and [our mission](The_Mission).

# Our Team

We are proud of our talented and diverse [team](about_us).

# How Can I Help?

If you would like to fund us, see [[funding]]. We currently have some
funding and always appreciate more!  If you are a Corporation or an
individual you can donate tax-free to NLNet, and they can in turn gift
our developers.  Contact lkcl@lkcl.net for more information.

If you want to write code with us, keep reading.  If you want to *learn* so that you can write code with us, see below.  If there is anything else, just get in touch on the list, there is plenty to do.

1. First, join the
[mailing list](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/mailman/listinfo/libre-riscv-dev),
introduce yourself (people will happily say "hello" back"). Read through
[recent posts](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/)
and the [[charter]], and let everyone know, on the list that you're
happy with it and agree to it.
2. The next thing you should do is read through the [bugs
list](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org) and see if there are any bugs that
pique your interest.
3. After that, go ahead and take a look at the resources section below. 
Try and clone a repository with
``git clone https://git.libre-riscv.org/git/repositoryname.git``
4. If you plan to do HDL work, you should familiarize yourself with our
   [[HDL_workflow]].
5. We do have funding available (see [[nlnet]]) upon completion of issues -
we are also working on procuring more funding which gets the project to
nanometre scale tapeout.
6. After all this, if you feel that Libre-SOC is a something that
you would like to contribute to, add yourself to the [current_members](about_us)
page, fill in some information about yourself, and join the mailing list
and say hello.

Also note that you can edit this wiki.  You can experiment in the [[Sandbox]].

## How can I learn?

The whole purpose of this project is to be a learning environment as well as an actual business.  If you want to learn how to do ASIC design, with a view to contributing or starting your own ASIC business, start here: [[3d_gpu/tutorial]]. Yes, really: do not let anyone tell you that you can't learn this stuff too.

Along the way, if you find any [[resources]] or links that you found particularly helpful, please add them to that page so that other people can also benefit (and you have a place to remember them, too).

## Needed Skills

Most labor is currently being applied to developing the GPU portion of
the Libre-SOC.

The highest priority needed at the moment is a c++ engineer to work on
a MESA 3D driver. This will begin life similar to SwiftShader however
retaining the vectorisation and predication intrinsics as well as hardware
accelerated opcodes (all of which SwiftShader lacks)

Medium to long-term we need HDL engineers. Particularly those familiar
with nMigen or just python.  Most of the techniques being used require
software engineering skills (OO design, polymorphism) than they do more
traditional HDL programming skills. Basically if you have experience in 2
of the following you'll do fine: python, nmigen, verilog/VHDL/gate-level
design. See [[HDL_workflow]]

Also, individuals with experience in formal mathematical verification
are quite welcome.