Google's Open Source Hardware Dreams

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[ben]

A few fun little facts:
NCSU publishes their free pdk for 45, 15, and 3nm process nodes.

It's how I learned VLSI myself, and Im at the big green company these days.

And, the 130nm process node is optimal for satellite systems. Radiation flips bits less often when you're on larger transistors.

[matthewvenn]

Great video Jon! Thanks for the mention. Thought you did a good job on framing the open source tools and the aims.

[himanshusingh]

I also fantasize about open-source projects for CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and a few ASICs with at least one project in each category having a humongous contributor base so that people get good hardware without any IP fee (only manufacturing cost). There will be huge libraries so that anybody can make a custom chip for their application or simply pick the leading FPGA to program it to their needs.
There are some big open-source projects like Linux and applications for Linux, ROS, OpenCV, some CAD software, etc. And Linux made Microsoft afraid when they were dependent on selling windows to earn money.

[Aubstract]

This is so cool! The first application I thought of was for one of my other interests: astronomy. The issue that large, ground-based telescopes face is that the atmosphere "smudges" the image they create with every bit of turbulence in the air. Nowadays the big fancy observatories get around this by using "adaptive optics", which are optical surfaces that can change shape thousands of times per second to perfectly counteract the distortion caused by turbulence. The whole system uses machine vision, and the calculations have to be done super fast (again, at least thousands of times per second), so (I think) it takes dedicated hardware to do it. But that's out of the price range for a lot of observatory projects. I remember reading a research paper that looked at consumer grade GPUs vs FPGAs to tackle the problem in a cheaper way, and I think they ended up performing kind of similarly. But making a cheap(er) ASIC for that exact task would be incredible!

Who knows if that's still how the research stands, that was a few years ago that I read that paper, and I don't know when it was published. So it could be that modern GPUs are so performant that they are the best option. Who knows, but that's just what I thought of.

[CoRnJuLiOx]

How timely - I just literally started the NAND to Tetris course on Coursera yesterday night specifically because I'm interested in getting into the hardware stuff.

[fllramos]

8:39 Thanks for your comment on our work!

[phaselockk]

That neural network chip was done a part of the spin out of the startup company Isocline from UofM, which eventually rebranded itself to Mythic Semiconductor. Unfortunately, they just went out of business this week, as they ran out of money before getting substantial revenue.

[Shogoeu]

It's nice that companies are creating these tools, otherwise it's nearly impossible to get into microelectronics design on your own.
7:56 - when would such a thing happen in *hardware*

[ccoder]

What can you do with 130nm? All sorts of stuff, including stuff you might never think of. I work for a major semiconductor manufacturer on power converters. Most of our state of the art processes for analog and power devices are around there. That's a great spot for high performance CMOS analog. 130nm might not be good enough for cutting edge digital, but you can still build amazing digital on that. And possibly quite alot of analog circuitry, depending on how the process is tuned.

[sashimanu]

Remembering google’s track record on suddenly discontinuing projects I wouldn’t have high hopes regarding this one’s longevity

[Sythemn]

Someone could do computer preservation with this.
All patents from that time frame should have expired, making it legal for people to design new hardware compatible with pre-2000's computing where existing hardware is getting more and more rare. A community C64 or even Win 98 / DOS compatible SoC's would be very welcome to the retro computing niche.

[baptistedelplanque]

A recruiter came to me a couple days ago about that! Google is looking for devs with microelectronics background to develop it's CAD tool.

[ivoryas]

Honestly, I've felt for quite some time that with some senior legacy-nodes coupled with some slick coding quite a few modern day things could take place (especially as some people start using dumb phones instead of smart ones).
I hadn't assumed I was the first or foremost by a long shot, but it's nice to see it actually take place. 👍🏾
Another great video. 👌🏾

[PalCan]

Well that's one way to raise talent in a hotly contested field where companies fight over a limited pool of chip designers

[NoorquackerInd]

Finally, now Gentoo users can compile their CPUs

[upstating]

I imagine the reactions I would've gotten if I uttered the words "180nm open source architecture" in some of those meetings back in the day.

I'd have a suite in Bellevue, and a nice white shirt with very long sleeves.

[irwainnornossa]

Wait a minute. So…does that mean that I, just your average Joe, can design my own silicon, and send it to <them>, and they mail me…my ASIC? Or do I get it wrong?
Because if so, that would be pretty neat. I could finally design my own CPU. Which sucks in every way, sure, but it's mine!

[tualatindjep]

Excellent video, oh, FYI, GDS II is pronounced GDS "two", it's the second revision of GDS (Graphic Design System) from Calma.

[sahhaf]

I wish I have a longer lifespan just to learn about these things...
One thing that the creators must be careful about is the size and complexity.. I think today nobody has a complete knowledge about the internals of linux anymore (including, I believe, Linus and Kroah-Hartmann), because it got so huge and complicated. Linus himself said it is "bloated". Many people believe that linux would have the same capabilities and speed with a much smaller and simpler codebase.

[workethicrecords]

One of the good things for hobbyists about the larger NM size, is lower rejection rates. 7 and 9nm projects (from what I understand) have really high rejection rates due to required precision. With less precision comes less mechanical error (one would think)