+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.