We are delighted to be able to announce additional sponsorship by
-[Purism](http://puri.sm), through [NLNet](http://nlnet.nl).
+[Purism](http://puri.sm), through [NLnet](http://nlnet.nl).
### Purism Sponsorship
As a social purpose corporation, Purism is empowered to balance
ethics, social enterprise, and profitable business. I am delighted that
they chose to fund the Libre RISC-V hybrid CPU/GPU through the
-[NLNet Foundation](https://nlnet.nl/PET). Their donation provides us some
+[NLnet Foundation](https://nlnet.nl/PET). Their donation provides us some
extra flexibility in how we reach the goal of bringing to market a hybrid
CPU, VPU, and GPU that is libre to the bedrock.
strategic decision-making to kick the trend towards privacy-invading
hardware "by default."
-However, just as NLNet recognises, Purism also appreciates that we
+However, just as NLnet recognises, Purism also appreciates that we
cannot stop at just the software. Profit-maximising corporations just
do not take the brave decisions that can compromise profits,
particularly when faced with competition: it's too much. This is why
never let that stop us from moving forward. A journey starts with a
first step, and continues with each step.
-With help from NLNet and companies like Purism, we can look forward to
+With help from NLnet and companies like Purism, we can look forward to
actually paying people to contribute to solving what was formerly
considered an impossible task.
It is worthwhile emphasising: any individual or corporation wishing to
see this project succeed (so that you can use it as the basis for one
-of your products, for example), donations through NLNet, as a
+of your products, for example), donations through NLnet, as a
registered charitable foundation, are tax deductible.
Likewise, for anyone who would like to help with the project's
Pixilica starts a 3D Open Graphics Alliance initiative; we decide to
-go with a "reconfigurable" pipeline; seven additional 50,000 EUR NLNet
+go with a "reconfigurable" pipeline; seven additional 50,000 EUR NLnet
grant proposals submitted.
### The Possibility of a 3D Open Graphics Alliance
either to reach a 1.5 GHz clock rate for high performance bursts, or to
run at 800 MHz in reduced-power mode.
-### NLNet Funding Proposals
+### NLnet Funding Proposals
-The next step is to put in over half a dozen NLNet funding proposals. No,
+The next step is to put in over half a dozen NLnet funding proposals. No,
literally:
[seven new proposals](https://libre-riscv.org/nlnet_proposals/),
each for 50,000 EUR. One for gcc, one for a port of MESA RADV to the
so power consumption is going to be high at 350 MHz. Still, for our first
ASIC ever, it's just exciting to think that it's possible at all.
-Regarding the NLNet proposals: we need people! In particular, we need two
-EU citizens to come forward, to satisfy NLNet's backers' requirements
-(thanks to [NGU.eu](https://ngi.eu), NLNet has received its money under
+Regarding the NLnet proposals: we need people! In particular, we need two
+EU citizens to come forward, to satisfy NLnet's backers' requirements
+(thanks to [NGU.eu](https://ngi.eu), NLnet has received its money under
the EU Horizon 2020 Programme), so at least one EU Citizen has to be
part of the proposal. One for gcc, another for the MESA/RADV port.
Please do contact me for details. There's no contract or obligation,
because this is charitable donations.
In addition, if anyone wants to receive tax deductible charitable
-donations direct from NLNet for working on aspects of this project,
+donations direct from NLnet for working on aspects of this project,
do get in touch, there is plenty to do. Application reviews start in two
weeks, we will hear from NLnet by December as to what has been approved,
and will be able to expand the project scope around January 2020,
which is just in time for FOSDEM2020.
Also, remember, if you work for a corporation that could financially
-benefit from this project being a reality, sponsorship, via NLNet,
+benefit from this project being a reality, sponsorship, via NLnet,
is tax deductible because it is a charitable donation.
(Update: covered in a
been approved. The RISC-V Foundation's continued extreme unethical
actions have led us to consider using Power ISA.
-### NLNet Grants
+### NLnet Grants
-[NLNet](http://nlnet.nl) were first approached eighteen months ago, with
+[NLnet](http://nlnet.nl) were first approached eighteen months ago, with
an initial application to develop the core of a privacy-respecting trustable
-processor. Whilst NLNet's primary focus of the past fifteen years has been
+processor. Whilst NLnet's primary focus of the past fifteen years has been
software, they have funded reverse-engineering for
[Osmocon BB](https://nlnet.nl/project/sdr-phy/) and for
[OpenBSC](https://nlnet.nl/project/iuh-openbsc/) so are no strangers to
high-end embedded controller. Staf from Chips4Makers will act as the
"NDA firebreak" between us and TSMC. (Side note: Staf ran a [Crowd
Supply campaign](https://www.crowdsupply.com/chips4makers/retro-uc),
-and the NLNet funding will help him to realise that project and
+and the NLnet funding will help him to realise that project and
perhaps re-start a new campaign for the Retro-uC one day).
-All of these have been approved by NLNet, and, crucially, the external
+All of these have been approved by NLnet, and, crucially, the external
independent review process successfully completed for each. The exact
amounts of each grant is to be confirmed, with each being possible to be
up to the limit of EUR 50,000 for each sub-project.
practical.
Therefore, we made sure that the calculations were based around an approximate
-EUR 3,000 per month budget per person, bearing in mind that due to NLNet's
+EUR 3,000 per month budget per person, bearing in mind that due to NLnet's
international tax agreements, this being donations, that's equivalent to a
"wage" of approximately nearly twice that amount (three times if, as a
business, you have to take into consideration corporation tax / employee
insurance as well).
We now need to find people willing to help do the work. What is
-really nice is that NLNet will donate money to them for completion of that work!
+really nice is that NLnet will donate money to them for completion of that work!
Therefore, if you've always wanted to work on a 3D processor, its drivers
and its source code, do get in touch.
decades with the Libre and Open Communities, I cannot think of a reason
why it would not be possible to sign it. We just have to see.
-The timing here with NLNet is just on the edge: we have to create a
+The timing here with NLnet is just on the edge: we have to create a
full list of milestones and assign a fixed budget to each (then later
subdivide them into sub-tasks under that milestone). This is a leeeetle
bit challenging when we have not yet reviewed the OpenPower agreement,
Several things in this update: the OpenPower Foundation released their
EULA (which is really exciting); we had
-a last-minute decision to go to FOSDEM to meet NLNet (and meet lots
+a last-minute decision to go to FOSDEM to meet NLnet (and meet lots
of nice people including someone from the EU Commission); we have new team
members helping out (and making really good progress).
Before we begin, however, we still have a high-priority task of
-finding a C++/compiler developer for the NLNet-funded 3D MESA Driver
+finding a C++/compiler developer for the NLnet-funded 3D MESA Driver
project. EUR 50,000 is available, tax-free: [this
thread](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-January/003302.html)
describes the scope, where you're pretty much at liberty to choose the
and it's a serious systemic flaw with the whole EU Grant system when
it comes to heavily-technical projects. Consequently, due to their high
level of internal expertise and dedication, the EU is extremely happy that
-NLNet takes direct responsibility for ensuring that the money they've
+NLnet takes direct responsibility for ensuring that the money they've
been given reaches people who release actual free software people to
improve real-world infrastructure for the benefit of EU Citizens (and
incidentally the rest of the world).
I had a brief chat with the person from the EU Commission. He was
delighted to be able to see the sheer number of people involved and
-being sponsored by NLNet. I had an opportunity to express some of my
-concerns about NLNet's relationship with the RISC-V Foundation. He
+being sponsored by NLnet. I had an opportunity to express some of my
+concerns about NLnet's relationship with the RISC-V Foundation. He
initially expressed puzzlement, because the EU is funding quite a lot
of RISC-V projects, and none of them had any issues. I asked him a
very simple question: "how many of those projects are simply
### Other Stuff
-The extra NLNet budgets are helping, as is the continued sponsorship
+The extra NLnet budgets are helping, as is the continued sponsorship
from Purism. I am beginning to get slightly overloaded with the
managerial and bureaucratic tasks, combined with the "Engineering"
tasks that, as is always the case, require 100% sustained week-long
focus. Making all these things compatible is a challenge.
-I still have to coordinate the NLNet tasks for each of the Memoranda
+I still have to coordinate the NLnet tasks for each of the Memoranda
of Understanding, at which point people can then get paid for
completing the associated tasks. I can't quite get over the fact that
-NLNet was happy to allocate such a huge amount of money to this
+NLnet was happy to allocate such a huge amount of money to this
project, it's amazing, humbling, and a huge responsibility.
Also, we got word that the 180 nm tape-outs (one in March 2020, one in
* [Epic MegaGrants](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-March/005262.html)
reached out (hello!) to say they're still considering our
request.
-* A marathon 3-hour session with [NLNet](http://nlnet.nl) resulted
+* A marathon 3-hour session with [NLnet](http://nlnet.nl) resulted
in the completion of the
[Milestone tasks list(s)](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/buglist.cgi?component=Milestones&list_id=567&resolution=---)
and a
to say a little bit about what each of them is doing. This also helps me
because these updates do take quite a bit of time to write.
-# NLNet Funding announcement
+# NLnet Funding announcement
An announcement went out
[last year](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2019-09/msg00170.html)
This was the short version, with a much more
[detailed insight](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-March/005478.html)
listed here which would do well as a bugreport. However the time it would
-take is quite significant. We do have funding available from NLNet,
+take is quite significant. We do have funding available from NLnet,
so if there is anyone that would like to take this on, under the supervision
of Jean-Paul at LIP6.fr, we can look at facilitating that.
[learn and adapt coriolis2](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=178)
which was needed to find out how much work would be involved, as much as
anything else, in order to be able to accurately assign the fixed budgets
-to the NLNet milestones. Following on from that, when Jock joined,
+to the NLnet milestones. Following on from that, when Jock joined,
we needed to work out a compact way to express the
[layout of blocks](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=217#c44)
and he's well on the way to achieving that.
c++ code into shape extremely rapidly, and this alone has opened up an
*entire new avenue* of potential for coriolis2 to be used in industry
for doing much larger ASICs. Which is precisely the kind of thing that
-our NLNet sponsors (and the EU, from the Horizon 2020 Grant) love. hooray.
+our NLnet sponsors (and the EU, from the Horizon 2020 Grant) love. hooray.
Now if only we could actually go to a conference and talk about it.
# POWER ISA decoder and Simulator
(and also like the [IEEE754 FPU](https://git.libre-riscv.org/?p=ieee754fpu.git))
they're intended for *general-purpose* use by other projects. These are
exactly the kinds of side-benefits for the wider Libre community that
-sponsorship, from individuals, Foundations (such as NLNet) and Companies
+sponsorship, from individuals, Foundations (such as NLnet) and Companies
(such as Purism and Raptor CS) brings.
# Kazan Getting a New Shader Compiler IR
quad-core ASIC that we have on the roadmap for the second chip. USD
$1m pays for 28nm masks (and so on, in an exponential ramp-up). No, we
don't want to do that straight away: yes we do want to go through a first
-proving test ASIC in 180nm, which, thanks to NLNet, is already funded.
+proving test ASIC in 180nm, which, thanks to NLnet, is already funded.
This is just good sane sensible use of funds.
Even USD $25,000 helps us to cover things such as administration of the
website (which is taking up a *lot* of time) and little things that we
-didn't quite foresee when putting in the NLNet Grant Applications.
+didn't quite foresee when putting in the NLnet Grant Applications.
Lastly, one of the conditions as I understood it from the Megagrants
process is that the funds are paid in "stages". This is exactly
-what NLNet does for (and with) us, right now. If you wanted to save
+what NLnet does for (and with) us, right now. If you wanted to save
administrative costs, there may be some benefit to having a conversation
with the [30-year-old](https://nlnet.nl/foundation/history/)
-NLNet Charitable Foundation. Something to think about?
+NLnet Charitable Foundation. Something to think about?
-# NLNet Milestone tasks
+# NLnet Milestone tasks
-Part of applying for NLNet's Grants is a requirement to create a list
+Part of applying for NLnet's Grants is a requirement to create a list
of tasks, each of which is assigned a budget. On 100% completion of the task,
donations can be sent out. With *six* new proposals accepted, each of which
required between five (minimum) and *ninteen* separate and distinct tasks,
[important advice](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-March/005354.html)
from both Mitch Alsup and Staf Verhaegen.
-(Staf is also [sponsored by NLNet](https://nlnet.nl/project/Chips4Makers/)
+(Staf is also [sponsored by NLnet](https://nlnet.nl/project/Chips4Makers/)
to create Libre-licensed Cell Libraries, busting through one of the -
many - layers of NDAs and reducing NREs and unnecessary and artificial
barriers for ASIC development: I helped him put in the submission, and
projects / crowdsupply.git / commitdiff