Making a chip required used to require a project with a million-dollar (USD) budget and was further inaccessible to individuals and small groups because commercial semiconductor fabs required Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs).
Yet, the Sky130 open-source chip design program https://github.com/google/skywater-pdk emerged in the last couple years that allows anybody with internet access and a laptop to design a chip. Fabbing the design is possible through a Google/SkyWater free multi-project wafer fab https://www.skywatertechnology.com/mpw/open-source-mpw-program/. Basic testing should be possible with readily available lab equipment.
Let me describe what I did in a couple weeks. Individuals and small groups can make important innovative contributions to technology at certain phases of development. So, tried to see what I could do from an office in an extra bedroom in my house and a handful of Windows 10/11 PCs. Having worked in the field for some time, my experience is not representative of a new entrant, but I wanted to demonstrate setting up the open source tool chain to become an effective platform for reversible computing R&D.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Unum Computing" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to unum-computin...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/unum-computing/CAMpdyDY9OtL4nfZSndzcYEj0yosm5HTfUVpOiaYNYW%3DgT4RJYw%40mail.gmail.com.