From: Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2020 17:10:23 +0000 (+0000) Subject: add epic section X-Git-Url: https://git.libre-soc.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=b3027bb42c3ef527922a13978cc99ebdf62d4491;p=crowdsupply.git add epic section --- diff --git a/updates/023_2020mar26_decoder_emulator_started.mdwn b/updates/023_2020mar26_decoder_emulator_started.mdwn index b836e2a..f6d5332 100644 --- a/updates/023_2020mar26_decoder_emulator_started.mdwn +++ b/updates/023_2020mar26_decoder_emulator_started.mdwn @@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Here's the summary (if it can be called a summary): for verification. * Jacob's simple-soft-float library growing [Power FP compatibility](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=258) - and python bindings. + and python bindings. * A Conference call with OpenPOWER Foundation Director, Hugh, and Timothy Pearson from RaptorCS has been established every two weeks. * The OpenPOWER Foundation is also running some open @@ -187,7 +187,63 @@ TODO http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-March/005291.ht # Epic Megagrants -TODO +Several months back I got word of the existence of Epic Games' "Megagrants". +In December 2019 they announced that so far they've given +[USD $13 million](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/epic-megagrants-reaches-13-million-milestone-in-2019) +to 200 recipients, so far: one of them, the Blender Foundation, was +[USD $1.2 million](https://www.blender.org/press/epic-games-supports-blender-foundation-with-1-2-million-epic-megagrant/)! +This is an amazing and humbling show of support for the 3D Community, +world-wide. + +It's not just "games", or products specifically using the Unreal Engine: +they're happy to look at anything that "enhances Libre / Open source" +capabilities for the 3D Graphics Community. + +A full hybrid 3D-capable CPU-GPU-VPU which is fully-documented not just in +its capabilities, that [documentation](http://libre-riscv.org) and +[full source code](http://git.libre-riscv.org) kinda extends +right the way through the *entire development process* down to the bedrock +of the actual silicon - not just the firmware, bootloader and BIOS, +*everything* - in my mind it kinda qualifies in way that can, in some +delightful way, be characterised delicately as "complete overkill". + +Interestingly, guys, if you're reading this: Tim, the CEO of RaptorCS +informs us that you're working closely with his team to get the Unreal +Engine up and running on the POWER architecture? Wouldn't that be highly +amusing, for us to be able to run the Unreal Engine on the Libre-SOC, +given that it's going to be POWER compatible hardware, as a test, +first initially in FPGA and then in 18-24 months, on actual silicon, eh? + +So, as I mentioned +[on the list](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-March/005262.html) +(reiterating what I put in the original application), we're happy with +USD $25,000, we're happy with USD $10 million. It's really up to you guys, +at Epic Games, as to what level you'd like to see us get to, and how fast. + +USD $600,000 for example we can instead of paying USD $1million to a proprietary +company to license a DDR3 PHY for a limited one-time use and only a 32-bit +wide interface, we can contract SymbioticEDA to *design* a DDR3 PHY for us, +which both we *and the rest of the worldwide Silicon Community can use +without limitation* because we will ask SymbioticEDA to make the design +libre-licensed, for anyone to use. + +USD 250,000 pays for the mask charges that will allow us to do the 40nm +quad-core ASIC that we have on the roadmap for the second chip. USD +$1m pays for 28nm masks (and so on, in an exponential ramp-up). No, we +don't want to do that straight away: yes we do want to go through a first +proving test ASIC in 180nm, which, thanks to NLNet, is already funded. +This is just good sane sensible use of funds. + +Even USD $25,000 helps us to cover things such as administration of the +website (which is taking up a *lot* of time) and little things that we +didn't quite foresee when putting in the NLNet Grant Applications. + +Lastly, one of the conditions as I understood it from the Megagrants +process is that the funds are paid in "stages". This is exactly +what NLNet does for (and with) us, right now. If you wanted to save +administrative costs, there may be some benefit to having a conversation +with the [30-year-old](https://nlnet.nl/foundation/history/) +NLNet Charitable Foundation. Something to think about? # NLNet Milestone tasks @@ -313,6 +369,11 @@ Fascinatingly, Linus Torvals is *specifically* [on record](https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/line-length-limits) about making sure that "Linux development does not favour wealthy people". +We are also, as mentioned before, moving to a new domain name. We'll take +the opportunity to fix some of the issues with HTTPS (wrong certificate), +and also do some +[better mailing list names](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=184) +at the same time. TODO (Veera?) bit about what was actually done, how it links into mailman2. @@ -345,6 +406,40 @@ TODO # Conclusion -TODO - +I'm not going to mention anything about the current world climate: you've +seen enough news reports. I will say (more about this through the +[EOMA68](https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop) updates) that +I anticipated something like what is happening right now, over ten years +ago. I wasn't precisely expecting what *has* happened, just the consequences: +world-wide travel shut-down, and for people - the world over - to return to +local community roots. + +However what I definitely wasn't expecting was a United States President +to be voted in who was eager and, frankly, stupid enough, to start *and +escalate* a Trade war with China. The impact on the U.S economy alone, and the +reputation of the whole country, has been detrimental in the extreme. + +This combination leaves us - world-wide - with the strong possibility that +seemed so "preposterous" that I could in no way discuss it widely, let alone +mention it on something like a Crowdsupply update, that thanks to the +business model on which their entire product lifecycle is predicated, +in combination with the extremely high NREs and development costs for +ASICs (custom silicon costs USD $100 million, these days), several +large Corporations producing proprietary binary-only drivers for +hardware on which we critically rely for our internet-connected way +of life **may soon go out of business**. + +Right at a critical time where video conferencing is taking off massively, +your proprietary hardware - your smartphone, your tablet, your laptop, +everything you rely on for connectivity to the rest of the world, all of +a sudden **you may not be able to get software updates** or, worse, +your products could even be +[remotely shut down](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home) +**without warning**. + +I do not want to hammer the point home too strongly but you should be +getting, in no uncertain terms, exactly how strategically critical, in +the current world climate, this project just became. We need to get it +accelerated, completed, and into production, in an expedited and responsible +fashion.