for verification.
* Jacob's simple-soft-float library growing
[Power FP compatibility](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=258)
- and python bindings.
+ and python bindings.
* A Conference call with OpenPOWER Foundation Director, Hugh, and Timothy
Pearson from RaptorCS has been established every two weeks.
* The OpenPOWER Foundation is also running some open
# Epic Megagrants
-TODO
+Several months back I got word of the existence of Epic Games' "Megagrants".
+In December 2019 they announced that so far they've given
+[USD $13 million](https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/epic-megagrants-reaches-13-million-milestone-in-2019)
+to 200 recipients, so far: one of them, the Blender Foundation, was
+[USD $1.2 million](https://www.blender.org/press/epic-games-supports-blender-foundation-with-1-2-million-epic-megagrant/)!
+This is an amazing and humbling show of support for the 3D Community,
+world-wide.
+
+It's not just "games", or products specifically using the Unreal Engine:
+they're happy to look at anything that "enhances Libre / Open source"
+capabilities for the 3D Graphics Community.
+
+A full hybrid 3D-capable CPU-GPU-VPU which is fully-documented not just in
+its capabilities, that [documentation](http://libre-riscv.org) and
+[full source code](http://git.libre-riscv.org) kinda extends
+right the way through the *entire development process* down to the bedrock
+of the actual silicon - not just the firmware, bootloader and BIOS,
+*everything* - in my mind it kinda qualifies in way that can, in some
+delightful way, be characterised delicately as "complete overkill".
+
+Interestingly, guys, if you're reading this: Tim, the CEO of RaptorCS
+informs us that you're working closely with his team to get the Unreal
+Engine up and running on the POWER architecture? Wouldn't that be highly
+amusing, for us to be able to run the Unreal Engine on the Libre-SOC,
+given that it's going to be POWER compatible hardware, as a test,
+first initially in FPGA and then in 18-24 months, on actual silicon, eh?
+
+So, as I mentioned
+[on the list](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2020-March/005262.html)
+(reiterating what I put in the original application), we're happy with
+USD $25,000, we're happy with USD $10 million. It's really up to you guys,
+at Epic Games, as to what level you'd like to see us get to, and how fast.
+
+USD $600,000 for example we can instead of paying USD $1million to a proprietary
+company to license a DDR3 PHY for a limited one-time use and only a 32-bit
+wide interface, we can contract SymbioticEDA to *design* a DDR3 PHY for us,
+which both we *and the rest of the worldwide Silicon Community can use
+without limitation* because we will ask SymbioticEDA to make the design
+libre-licensed, for anyone to use.
+
+USD 250,000 pays for the mask charges that will allow us to do the 40nm
+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.
+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.
+
+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
+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 Milestone tasks
[on record](https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/line-length-limits)
about making sure that "Linux development does not favour wealthy people".
+We are also, as mentioned before, moving to a new domain name. We'll take
+the opportunity to fix some of the issues with HTTPS (wrong certificate),
+and also do some
+[better mailing list names](http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=184)
+at the same time.
TODO (Veera?) bit about what was actually done, how it links into mailman2.
# Conclusion
-TODO
-
+I'm not going to mention anything about the current world climate: you've
+seen enough news reports. I will say (more about this through the
+[EOMA68](https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop) updates) that
+I anticipated something like what is happening right now, over ten years
+ago. I wasn't precisely expecting what *has* happened, just the consequences:
+world-wide travel shut-down, and for people - the world over - to return to
+local community roots.
+
+However what I definitely wasn't expecting was a United States President
+to be voted in who was eager and, frankly, stupid enough, to start *and
+escalate* a Trade war with China. The impact on the U.S economy alone, and the
+reputation of the whole country, has been detrimental in the extreme.
+
+This combination leaves us - world-wide - with the strong possibility that
+seemed so "preposterous" that I could in no way discuss it widely, let alone
+mention it on something like a Crowdsupply update, that thanks to the
+business model on which their entire product lifecycle is predicated,
+in combination with the extremely high NREs and development costs for
+ASICs (custom silicon costs USD $100 million, these days), several
+large Corporations producing proprietary binary-only drivers for
+hardware on which we critically rely for our internet-connected way
+of life **may soon go out of business**.
+
+Right at a critical time where video conferencing is taking off massively,
+your proprietary hardware - your smartphone, your tablet, your laptop,
+everything you rely on for connectivity to the rest of the world, all of
+a sudden **you may not be able to get software updates** or, worse,
+your products could even be
+[remotely shut down](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/05/revolv-devices-bricked-google-nest-smart-home)
+**without warning**.
+
+I do not want to hammer the point home too strongly but you should be
+getting, in no uncertain terms, exactly how strategically critical, in
+the current world climate, this project just became. We need to get it
+accelerated, completed, and into production, in an expedited and responsible
+fashion.
projects / crowdsupply.git / commitdiff