# RISC-V 3D GPU / CPU / VPU
+Creating a trustworthy processor for the world.
+
Note: this is a **hybrid** CPU, VPU and GPU. It is not, as many news articles
-are implying, a "dedicated exclusive GPU". The option exists to **create**
+are implying, a "dedicated exclusive GPU". The option exists to *create*
a stand-alone GPU product (contact us if this is a product that you want).
Our primary goal is to design a **complete** all-in-one processor
-(System-on-a-Chip) that happens to include a libre-licensed VPU and GPU.
+(System-on-a-Chip) that happens to include libre-licensed VPU and GPU
+accelerated instructions as part of the actual - main - CPU itself.
-We seek investors, sponsors, engineers and potential customers, who are
+We seek investors, sponsors (whose contributions thanks to NLNet may be
+tax-deductible), engineers and potential customers, who are
interested, as a first product, in the creation and use of an entirely
libre low-power mobile class system-on-a-chip. Comparative benchmark
performance, pincount and price is the Allwinner A64, except that the
We can look at larger higher-power ASICs either later or, if funding
is made available, immediately.
-Recent applications to NLNet (Oct 2019) are for a test chip in 180nm, 64 bit, single core dual issue, around 300 to 350mhz. This will provide the confidence to go to higher geometries, as well as be a commercially viable embedded product in its own right.
+Recent applications to NLNet (Oct 2019) are for a test chip in 180nm,
+64 bit, single core dual issue, around 300 to 350mhz. This will provide
+the confidence to go to higher geometries, as well as be a commercially
+viable embedded product in its own right.
# Business Objectives
-* the project shall be a hybrid CPU-GPU because if it is not, the
- complexity involved in developing a split shared-memory CPU-GPU both
- at a hardware and a software level will be so costly it will jeapordise
- the project.
+See [[3d_gpu/business_objectives]]
+
+* the project shall be a hybrid CPU-GPU-VPU
* the project shall be commercial and mass-volume (100 million units
and above)
* the project shall be entirely transparent so that end-users will be
and aiding and assisting developers AND BUSINESSES in debugging and thus
hugely saving them money.
+Reasoning:
+
+* If the processor is not a hybrid CPU-GPU-VPU, the
+ complexity involved in developing a split shared-memory CPU-GPU both
+ at a hardware and a software level will be so costly it will jeapordise
+ the project.
+* The project is commercial and mass-volume because there are plenty
+ of academic designs (none of them reaching production where people
+ may benefit), and "Open" designs, created by the Open Hardware
+ Community, sadly due to the high cost of producing ASICs, tend to be
+ focussed on markets that would have been great about twenty to thirty
+ years ago.
+* Transparency is a key business objective. It is a Unique Selling Point
+ that the processor is developed in a fashion that, should it be
+ independently audited, no opportunity for spying back-door co-processors
+ will be found to have "made their way surreptitiously - or overtly -
+ into the design". Yes, GCHQ: I know about the conversation you had
+ with nCipher (and, to their everlasting credit, that they told you
+ to take a hike)
+
# Links:
* [[shakti/m_class/libre_3d_gpu]]
* [[discussion]]
* [[resources]]
+* [[overview]]
+* [[3d_gpu/funding]]
+* [[3d_gpu/architecture]]
* Founding [[charter]]
* Mailing list <http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/>
* Crowdsupply page <https://www.crowdsupply.com/libre-risc-v/m-class>
* [NLNet 2019 Milestones](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/buglist.cgi?columnlist=assigned_to%2Cbug_status%2Cresolution%2Cshort_desc%2Ccf_budget&f1=cf_nlnet_milestone&o1=equals&query_format=advanced&resolution=---&v1=NLnet.2019.02)
* NLNet Project Page <https://nlnet.nl/project/Libre-RISCV/>
* [[nlnet_proposals]]
+* [[llvm]]
# Progress:
+* Jan 2020: New team members, Yehowshua and Michael. Last-minute attendance of FOSDEM2020
* Dec 2019: Second round NLNet questions answered. External Review completed. 6 NLNet proposals accepted (EUR 200,000+)
* Nov 2019: Alternative FP library to Berkeley softfloat developed. NLNet first round questions answered.
* Oct 2019: 3D Standards continued. POWER ISA considered. Open 3D Alliance begins. NLNet funding applications submitted.
* <https://www.reddit.com/r/RISCV/comments/db04j3/libreriscv_3d_cpugpu_seeks_grants_for_ambitious/>
* <https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/09/29/1845252/libre-risc-v-3d-cpugpu-seeks-grants-for-ambitious-expansion>
* <https://forums.puri.sm/t/risc-v-m-class-effort-and-purism-donation/6528/15>
+* <https://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/27527/comm/1/show-all-comments.html>
# Information Resources and Tutorials
# Evaluations
-*[[openpower]]
+* [[openpower]]