http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/news/codasip-baysand-bring-risc-v-process...
may be related, may be not - this is 65nm (around 700mhz top speed) and 40nm (around... 1.2ghz top speed if you're very lucky and have a decent design).
"multivendor" program, basically you chuck a whole bunch of customer's designs onto a single wafer, absolutely nobody expects to get very many actual working ICs out of it, but the cost of a single wafer (bear in mind that 16 wafers have to be made simultaneously, total cost around $250k or that order, for 40nm) is subdivided amongst many many people. end result: relatively cheap prototype grade ICs.
the bit about conversion from FPGA... *shudder* that's truly dreadful, to not bother with the conversion from FPGA layout to a proper IC layout, just do like a "hard copy" of an FPGA, but given that the tools can cost $250k *PER WEEK* to rent (not buy) that's hardly surprising.
anyway all looks very interesting.
l.
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 4:57 AM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton lkcl@lkcl.net wrote:
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 9:09 PM, Paul Boddie paul@boddie.org.uk wrote:
On Thursday 3. November 2016 15.59.16 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
what's the name of the group behind it, and who is in that group? there's been a lot of publications and discussions online about risc-v
- it should not be hard to find what they're planning as it is
extremely likely that it's been discussed online for several months if not years.
We at least know who is fabricating their product:
https://www.crowdsupply.com/providers/electronics-fabrication/taiwan- semiconductor
That's rather interesting because I had the impression that TSMC was really for people committing to huge volumes, with orders covered by highly secretive contracts, which isn't what you'd normally associate with a crowdfunding campaign. But maybe they like to keep their older foundries busy with smaller- volume orders like this.
yeah i investigated TSMC some time ago, iirc they still have down to .36 micron, typically used for power transistors and so on. they'll almost certainly have .18 micron and 65nm - all of these will be highly cost-effective (lots of competition), not in huge demand, and would also be a good proving-ground for an effort such as a RISC-V slow-speed 32-bit processor.
l.