# NL.net proposal
+* 2019-10-012
+* Top level bugreport <http://bugs.libre-soc.org/show_bug.cgi?id=191>
+* NLNet Project page <https://nlnet.nl/project/Libre-RISCV/>
+## Project name
+
+The Libre-RISCV SoC
+
+## Website / wiki
+
+<https://libre-soc.org/nlnet_2018>
+
+Please be short and to the point in your answers; focus primarily on
+the what and how, not so much on the why. Add longer descriptions as
+attachments (see below). If English isn't your first language, don't
+worry - our reviewers don't care about spelling errors, only about
+great ideas. We apologise for the inconvenience of having to submit in
+English. On the up side, you can be as technical as you need to be (but
+you don't have to). Do stay concrete. Use plain text in your reply only,
+if you need any HTML to make your point please include this as attachment.
+
+## Abstract: Can you explain the whole project and its expected outcome(s).
+
+Intelligence Communities have a hard rule: if the trustworthiness of
+an adversary is not known, the absolute worst must be assumed.
+An average computer end-user makes the mistake of holding the opposite view:
+"what I don't know about can't hurt me therefore it couldn't happen to me".
+
+until it does.
+
+So responsibility falls to those people who *do* have the expertise and
+knowledge to design trustworthy privacy-respecting systems to take the
+initiative. Unfortunately, if the hardware is compromised (for example,
+the Intel Management Engine, aka "NSA Backdoor spying co-processor"), all
+efforts at the software level, however well-intentioned and no matter
+how far they go, are utterly compromised and rendered completely ineffective.
+
+Therefore, the only real way to fully and truly gain the trust of the
+end-users is to go right back to the harware, and to *transparently*
+design an entire processor, from scratch, in a truly Libre / Open
+fashion.
+
+This project therefore will provide a fully libre and open design of
+mobile-class processor, where not only the source code of the BIOS,
+bootloader, kernel and Operating System are entirely available, the
+*hardware defintion* (HDL) source code will be entirely available as well.
+That includes the GPU (for 3D Graphics), and the VPU (for video decode),
+as well as full libre-licensed source code for the 3D and VPU drivers.
+
+The expected outcome within the next 18-24 months is to deliver a
+fully-functioning quad-core 800mhz RISC-V 64-bit SoC (system-on-a-chip)
+for use in tablets, netbooks, smartphones, chromebooks and IoT Industrial
+Embedded scenarios.
+
+# Have you been involved with projects or organisations relevant to this project before? And if so, can you tell us a bit about your contributions?
+
+Luke Leighton is an ethical technology specialist who has a consistent
+23-year track record of developing code in a real-time transparent
+(fully libre) fashion, and in managing Software Libre teams. He currently
+is fulfilling a USD $200,000 successfully-funded crowdfunding campaign:
+an eco-conscious computing project.
+
+Jacob Lifshay is a software libre 3D expert who developed a Vulkan 3D
+software render engine under the GSoc2017 Programme. He also developed
+his own libre-licensed 32-bit RISC-V processor, and has written an
+optimising javascript compiler. Luke is presently personally sponsoring
+him to continue the Vulkan driver development, a project known as Kazan
+(https://salsa.debian.org/Kazan-team/kazan)
+
+# Requested Amount
+
+EUR $50,000.
+
+# Explain what the requested budget will be used for?
+
+EUR $50,000 is approximately half a percent of the total budget needed to
+achieve the goal. It will however easily fund us, as software engineers,
+to get to an all-important milestone: an FPGA demonstrator. We already
+have the FPGAs: we need time to focus on developing both the hardware
+and the software (in tandem).
+
+An FPGA demonstration will bring confidence to investors and larger
+sponsors alike, as well as give potential Crowdsupply campaign backers
+confidence to back the project (the Crowdsupply page is already
+up in pre-launch mode at https://crowdsupply.com/libre-risc-v/m-class)
+
+Additionally, there are domain experts whom we would like to bring on board
+with offers of sponsorship, particularly when it comes to the compilers
+that will need to be augmented to match the planned RISC-V enhancements
+needed for the combined CPU, GPU and VPU workload.
+
+# Does the project have other funding sources, both past and present?
+
+The project is entirely self-funded from personal income. Luke is presently
+sponsoring Jacob from personal income. There is no corporate sponsorship.
+There is no academic affiliation so there is no source of academic grants.
+
+Jacob's costs are around USD $1,000 per month. Luke's costs are around
+USD $1,500 per month (including support for his family).
+
+We already have been donated a ZC706 FPGA board, and have just recently
+also been offered a comparable MicroSemi FPGA board from another sponsor.
+We both have sufficiently powerful modern computers to cope with the workload
+of both the software development and for hardware simulations, although Luke's
+Aorus X3v6 high-end laptop could benefit from an upgrade to 32GB of RAM
+(approx USD $250).
+
+Whilst there are conferences that it would be good to go to, the cost
+of world-wide flights is so relatively high that it would only be
+prudent to do so only if there is significant benefit (or additional
+sponsors).
+
+Primarily we need to focus on the development of the core processor,
+the 3D Driver (Kazan) and the compiler technology. EUR $50,000 will
+easily cover our costs for up to 20 months.
+
+# Compare your own project with existing or historical efforts.
+
+There have been a number of efforts to create Libre SoCs. If they are
+by Open Hardware community individuals, they are typically 32-bit and
+tend to run at an absolute maximum of 500mhz, due to design flaws that
+are not really noticed at the slower speeds achievable with FPGAs.
+The OpenRISC 1200 falls into this category.
+
+There are a number of higher-end 64-bit RISC-V efforts: Rocket-Chip
+is used by LowRISC and SiFive. These are not capable of 3D or VPU
+workloads, and their internal architecture nor codebase is suited
+to the massive redesign effort required to cope with the demands of
+3D and Video workloads.
+
+There have also been a number of GPU efforts: the Open Graphics
+Project, and the (incorrectly named) GPLGPU project (the license was
+not GPL). Both of these focussed on a PCIe Graphics Card as the
+primary objective: neither of them succeeded. There is also a
+project called "ORGFX": an extension to the OpenRISC core as a Master's
+Degree. This was successful however it is what is termed a "fixed
+function" 3D engine, which is in absolutely no way suited to modern graphics,
+all of which has moved to "shader" design.
+
+Also, from two researchers at the University of Birmingham, are
+two efforts known as "Nyuzi" and the "Open Shader" Project. Nyuzi
+is a non-hardware-accelerated Software Renderer, based on Intel's
+Larrabee Project, which has
+power-performance characteristics 25% that of an embedded MALI 400 GPU.
+As-is, it is unsuitable for deployment in a mobile-class environment. The
+Open Shader project appears to have stalled, and its academic developers
+are unresponsive (a prerequisite for true auditable open collaboration).
+
+In addition, the MIAOW Project is another academic effort to research
+parallel computing workloads. It has no GPU characteristics, at all,
+would require significant investment of time and effort to adapt, and,
+not being suitable for general-purpose CPU workloads, would require
+a significant (risky) investment of time and effort in the 3D driver.
+By contrast, the approach taken - to hardware-accelerate a hybrid
+CPU-GPU-VPU that is primarily a software renderer, requires significantly
+less resources in driver development.
+
+All other mobile-class commercial SoCs license either proprietary
+GPU technology or proprietary VPU technology, neither of which may
+be trusted by end-users to respect privacy.
+
+Basically there does not exist - anywhere in the world - in the year
+2018 - a commercially-available system-on-a-chip where the entire
+source code of both the hardware and the software is libre-licensed.
+Full (libre) transparency is the only way that independent audits may be
+carried out.
+
+## What are significant technical challenges you expect to solve during the project, if any?
+
+The development of a hybrid CPU-GPU-VPU is a significant project.
+However as an libre / open project, we are able to ask questions and
+get help online from unexpected sources, which no "competitive"
+commercial company could ever possibly consider doing. At the time
+of writing, the comp.arch newsgroup has a number of active discussions
+where our lack of knowledge is being corrected and augmented by
+several extremely experienced hardware engineers, including Mitch
+Alsup, the designer of the Motorola 68000 Family.
+
+Mitch used to work for AMD, in particular on the AMDGPU: he was also
+the architect of the AMD K9 Series, and more recently he was a technical
+advisor to Samsung on their GPU Project.
+
+With his help we have already uncovered some previously unknown
+features of the CDC 6600 processor, developed in 1964 by Seymour Cray.
+We are extremely lucky to have access to his wealth of experience and
+knowledge.
+
+Only by being independent of Corporate control as a Libre Project can we
+release simulations, reports, documentation and source code, in real-time,
+such that it may be publicly reviewed and found not to contain
+privacy-violating spying back-doors.
+
+
+## Describe the ecosystem of the project, and how you will engage with relevant actors and promote the outcomes?
+
+We have a pre-launch Crowdsupply page up and running already, at
+https://www.crowdsupply.com/libre-risc-v/m-class through which we will
+engage with developers and end-users alike. Developers will be invited
+to participate through the http://libre-riscv.org website and resources.
+
+The Crowdsupply page has already been picked up by Phoronix, Heise.de
+Magazine, reddit and ycombinator. There is a lot of interest in this
+project.
+
+# Extra info to be submitted
+
+* <https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/18/12/11/1410200/super-micro-says-review-found-no-malicious-chips-in-motherboards>
+* <https://libreboot.org/faq.html#intelme>
projects / libreriscv.git / blobdiff