Note: this is a **hybrid** CPU, VPU and GPU. It is not, as many news articles
are implying, a "dedicated exclusive GPU". The option exists to **create**
-a stand-alone GPU product. It is being *designed* to be a **complete**
-all-in-one processor (System-on-a-Chip).
+a stand-alone GPU product (contact us if this is a product that you want).
+Our primary goal is to design a **complete** all-in-one processor
+(System-on-a-Chip) that happens to include libre-licensed VPU and GPU
+accelerated instructions as part of the actual - main - CPU itself.
-We seek investors, sponsors, engineers and potential customers, who are
-interested in the creation and use of an entirely libre low-power mobile
-class system-on-a-chip. Comparative benchmark performance, pincount and
-price is the Allwinner A64, except that the power budget target is 2.5 watts
-in a 16x16mm 320 to 360 pin 0.8mm FBGA package.
+We seek investors, sponsors (whose contributions thanks to NLNet may be
+tax-deductible), engineers and potential customers, who are
+interested, as a first product, in the creation and use of an entirely
+libre low-power mobile class system-on-a-chip. Comparative benchmark
+performance, pincount and price is the Allwinner A64, except that the
+power budget target is 2.5 watts in a 16x16mm 320 to 360 pin 0.8mm
+FBGA package. Instead of single-issue higher clock rate, the design is
+multi-issue, aiming for around 800mhz.
-See:
+The lower pincount, lower power, and higher BGA pitch is all to reduce
+the cost of product development when it comes to PCB design and layout:
+
+* Above 4 watts requires metal packages, greater attention to thermal
+ management in the PCB design and layout, and much pricier PMICs.
+* 0.6mm pitch BGA and below requires much more expensive PCB manufacturing
+ equipment and more costly PCBA techniques.
+* Above 600 pins begins to reduce production yields as well as increase
+ the cost of testing and packaging.
+
+We can look at larger higher-power ASICs either later or, if funding
+is made available, immediately.
+
+Recent applications to NLNet (Oct 2019) are for a test chip in 180nm,
+64 bit, single core dual issue, around 300 to 350mhz. This will provide
+the confidence to go to higher geometries, as well as be a commercially
+viable embedded product in its own right.
+
+# Business Objectives
+
+See [[3d_gpu/business_objectives]]
+
+* the project shall be a hybrid CPU-GPU-VPU
+* the project shall be commercial and mass-volume (100 million units
+ and above)
+* the project shall be entirely transparent so that end-users will be
+ able to trust it
+* the source code shall be available at all times for all components
+ for BUSINESS reasons, making development and use of SDKs dead simple
+ and aiding and assisting developers AND BUSINESSES in debugging and thus
+ hugely saving them money.
+
+Reasoning:
+
+* If the processor is not a hybrid CPU-GPU-VPU, the
+ complexity involved in developing a split shared-memory CPU-GPU both
+ at a hardware and a software level will be so costly it will jeapordise
+ the project.
+* The project is commercial and mass-volume because there are plenty
+ of academic designs (none of them reaching production where people
+ may benefit), and "Open" designs, created by the Open Hardware
+ Community, sadly due to the high cost of producing ASICs, tend to be
+ focussed on markets that would have been great about twenty to thirty
+ years ago.
+* Transparency is a key business objective. It is a Unique Selling Point
+ that the processor is developed in a fashion that, should it be
+ independently audited, no opportunity for spying back-door co-processors
+ will be found to have "made their way surreptitiously - or overtly -
+ into the design". Yes, GCHQ: I know about the conversation you had
+ with nCipher (and, to their everlasting credit, that they told you
+ to take a hike)
+
+# Links:
* [[shakti/m_class/libre_3d_gpu]]
* [[discussion]]
+* [[resources]]
+* [[overview]]
+* [[3d_gpu/funding]]
+* [[3d_gpu/architecture]]
+* Founding [[charter]]
* Mailing list <http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/>
* Crowdsupply page <https://www.crowdsupply.com/libre-risc-v/m-class>
* Wiki <https://libre-riscv.org>
* Git repositories <https://git.libre-riscv.org>
* Bugtracker <http://bugs.libre-riscv.org>
* Kazan Vulkan Driver (including 3D engine) <https://salsa.debian.org/Kazan-team/kazan>
+* [NLNet 2019 Milestones](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/buglist.cgi?columnlist=assigned_to%2Cbug_status%2Cresolution%2Cshort_desc%2Ccf_budget&f1=cf_nlnet_milestone&o1=equals&query_format=advanced&resolution=---&v1=NLnet.2019.02)
+* NLNet Project Page <https://nlnet.nl/project/Libre-RISCV/>
+* [[nlnet_proposals]]
-Progress:
+# Progress:
+* Dec 2019: Second round NLNet questions answered. External Review completed. 6 NLNet proposals accepted (EUR 200,000+)
+* Nov 2019: Alternative FP library to Berkeley softfloat developed. NLNet first round questions answered.
+* Oct 2019: 3D Standards continued. POWER ISA considered. Open 3D Alliance begins. NLNet funding applications submitted.
+* Sep 2019: 3D Standards continued. Additional NLNet Funding proposals discussed.
+* Aug 2019: Development of "Transcendentals" (SIN/COS/ATAN2) Specifications
+* Jul 2019: Sponsorship from Purism received. IEEE754 FP Mul, Add, DIV,
+ FCLASS and FCVT pipelines completed.
+* Jun 2019: IEEE754 FP Mul, Add, and FSM "DIV" completed.
+* May 2019: 6600-style scoreboard started
+* Apr 2019: NLnet funding approved by independent review committee
* Mar 2019: NLnet funding application first and second phase passed
* Mar 2019: First successful nmigen pipeline milestone achieved with IEEE754 FADD
* Feb 2019: Conversion of John Dawson's IEEE754 FPU to nmigen started
# News Articles
+* <https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/hardware/processors-memory/1133806-libre-risc-v-open-source-effort-now-looking-at-power-instead-of-risc-v/page7>
* <https://hub.packtpub.com/a-libre-gpu-effort-based-on-risc-v-rust-llvm-and-vulkan-by-the-developer-of-an-earth-friendly-computer/>
* <https://riscv.org/2018/10/packt-hub-article-a-libre-gpu-effort-based-on-risc-v-rust-llvm-and-vulkan-by-the-developer-of-an-earth-friendly-computer/>
* <https://www.reddit.com/r/RISCV/comments/9jts9t/theres_a_new_libre_gpu_effort_building_on_riscv/>
* <https://www.reddit.com/domain/libre-riscv.org/>
* <https://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13447940&cid=58160868>
* <https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/hardware/graphics-cards/1080755-libre-risc-v-gpu-aiming-for-2-5-watt-power-draw-continues-being-plotted/page5>
+* <https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/hardware/processors-memory/1070828-more-details-on-the-proposed-simple-v-extension-to-risc-v-for-gpu-workloads>
+* <https://slashdot.org/submission/9750302/nlnet-funds-development-of-a-libre-risc-v-3d-cpu>
+* <https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/06/02/0153243/nlnet-funds-development-of-a-libre-risc-v-3d-cpu>
+* <https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/hardware/graphics-cards/1104124-libre-risc-v-snags-50k-eur-grant-to-work-on-its-risc-v-3d-gpu-chip/page6>
+* <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21112341>
+* <https://www.reddit.com/r/RISCV/comments/db04j3/libreriscv_3d_cpugpu_seeks_grants_for_ambitious/>
+* <https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/09/29/1845252/libre-risc-v-3d-cpugpu-seeks-grants-for-ambitious-expansion>
+* <https://forums.puri.sm/t/risc-v-m-class-effort-and-purism-donation/6528/15>
+* <https://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/27527/comm/1/show-all-comments.html>
# Information Resources and Tutorials
* <https://chips4makers.io/blog/>
* <https://hackaday.io/project/7817-zynqberry>
* <https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/FSiC2019>
+* <https://github.com/efabless/raven-picorv32> - <https://efabless.com>
+* <https://efabless.com/design_catalog/default>
+* <https://toyota-ai.ventures/>
+* <https://github.com/lambdaconcept/minerva>
+* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liskov_substitution_principle>
+* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment>
+* <https://peertube.f-si.org/videos/watch/379ef007-40b7-4a51-ba1a-0db4f48e8b16>
+* <https://github.com/riscv/riscv-sbi-doc/blob/master/riscv-sbi.md>
+* <https://mshahrad.github.io/openpiton-asplos16.html>
+* <https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/The_Raven_chip:_First-time_silicon_success_with_qflow_and_efabless>
+* <http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2019/04/19/aic-adventures-in-consensus/>
+* <http://www.crnhq.org/12-Skills-Summary.aspx?rw=c>
+* <http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/buglist.cgi?columnlist=assigned_to%2Cbug_status%2Cresolution%2Cshort_desc%2Ccf_budget&f1=cf_nlnet_milestone&o1=equals&query_format=advanced&resolution=---&v1=NLnet.2019.02>
+* <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5060/4e9aff0e37089c4ab9a376c3f35761ffe28b.pdf>
+* <http://www.acsel-lab.com/arithmetic/arith15/papers/ARITH15_Takagi.pdf>
+* <https://youtu.be/o5Ihqg72T3c>
+* <http://flopoco.gforge.inria.fr/>
+* Fundamentals of Modern VLSI Devices <https://groups.google.com/a/groups.riscv.org/d/msg/hw-dev/b4pPvlzBzu0/7hDfxArEAgAJ>
+
+# Analog Simulation
+
+* <https://github.com/Isotel/mixedsim>
+* <http://www.vlsiacademy.org/open-source-cad-tools.html>
+* <http://ngspice.sourceforge.net/adms.html>
+* <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verilog-AMS#Open_Source_Implementations>
+
+# Evaluations
+
+*[[openpower]]
projects / libreriscv.git / blobdiff