# 3.2 Capacity of participants and consortium as a whole
-The majority of the consortium have been working together for over three years on the precursor technical development of the Libre-SOC core project, the evolution of which is the lynch-pin and "proving-ground" of this grant application. The public record of their achievements and team involvement can be found in their public Open Source record https://libre-soc.org/.
-
-The Libre-SOC team are internationally experienced software professionals who have strong familiarity with state of the art software to silicon technologies. They have been supported by two of the co-applicants labs CNRS and LIP6 (The applicants being Sorbonne Université and Affiliated Entity, CNRS), and many other European based technology development groups, which each provide key elements of the project from specialist programs such as coriolis2, alliance, HITAS, YAGLE and more, and the manufacturing expertise of Imec. Their versatility and experience with Libre/Open Source Software also means that they can adapt to unforeseen circumstances and can navigate the ever-changing and constantly-evolving FOSS landscape with confidence.
-
-The above is critically important in light of the requirement to demonstrate access to critical infrastructure, resources and the ability to fulfil: with the sole exception of NDA'd Foundry PDKs (Physical Design Kits), the entirety of this project is Libre/Open Source, both in the tools it utilises, components that it uses, and the results that are generated. With there being no restriction on the availability of Libre/Open Source software needed to complete the project, the Participants correspondingly have no impediment. We also have a proven strategy to deal with the NDA's: a "parallel track" where at least one Participant (Sorbonne Université, LIP6 Lab) has signed TSMC Foundry NDAs, and consequently there is no impediment there, either.
-
-Sorbonne Université (SU) is a multidisciplinary, research-intensive and world class academic institution. It was created on January 1st 2018 as the merger of two first-class research intensive universities, UPMC (University Pierre and Marie Curie) and Paris-Sorbonne. Sorbonne Université is now organized with three faculties: humanities, medicine and science each with the wide-ranging autonomy necessary to conduct its ambitious programs in both research and education. SU counts 53,500 students, 3,400 professor-researchers and 3,600 administrative and technical staff members. SU is intensively engaged in European research projects (163 FP7 projects and 195 H2020 projects).
-Its computer science laboratory, LIP6, is internationally recognized as a leading research institute.
-
-LIP6 is a Joint Research Unit of both SU (Sorbonne Université) and CNRS. Both entities invest resources within LIP6 so CNRS is then an Affiliated Entity linked to SU. According to SU-CNRS agreement regarding LIP6, SU, as a full partner, manages the grant for its Affiliated Entity, CNRS.
-
-RED Semiconductor Ltd has been established as a commercialisation vehicle, sharing the Libre principles of the core Libre-SOC team and bringing Semiconductor industry commercial management and technology experience. This includes the founders of two successful semiconductor companies and a public company chairman. There is also a cross directorship of Luke Leighton (of Libre-SOC) giving the company an extensive technology market and leadership experience.
-
-NLnet is a Netherlands based public benefit organisation that brings to the table over 35 years of European internet history and well over two decades of unique real-world experience in funding and supporting bottom up internet infrastructure projects around the world - engaging some of the best independent researchers and developers. NLnet has funded essential work on important infrastructure parts of the internet, from the technologies with which the answers from the DNS root of the internet can now be trusted, all the way up to key standards for email security, transport layer security, email authenticity, and a lot more - on virtually every layer of the internet, from securing core routing protocols to browser security plugins, from firmware security to open source LTE networks.
-
-Most recently NLnet is hosting the NGI0 Discovery, NGI0 PET and NGI Assure open calls as part of the Next Generation Internet research and development initiative, of which NLnet supports 300+ open source software, open hardware and open standards projects to build a more resilient, sustainable and trustworthy internet.
-
-NLnet, a Stichting / Foundation, has been Libre-SOC’s funding source from the beginning and fundamentally understands our technology and direction of travel. As well as providing augmentation under existing EU Grants funding for technology opportunities that we will benefit from but are yet to be identified, they are a fundamental sounding board that will be invaluable to the project moving forward.
-
-Regarding the extreme high-end computing resources necessary to complete the exceptionally-demanding task of VLSI development and Layout, we find that high-end modern laptops and desktop computers (with 64 to 256 GB of RAM) are perfectly adequate. However in the event that our immediately-accessible computing resources are not adequate, both Sorbonne Université (LIP6 and CNRS) and Libre-SOC qualify for access to Fed4Fire (https://www.fed4fire.eu/- grant agreement No 732638) which gives us direct access to large clusters (100+) high-end servers. Additionally, we are specifying some of these high-end computers in our budget, and the software to run on them is entirely Libre-Licensed and within our combined experience to deploy.
-
-We have established that Embecosm Gmbh and Vrull.eu are some of the world's leading experts in Compiler Technology. We will put out to tender a Contract with an initial evaluation phase, followed by a TRL 4/5 Research phase for the prerequisite compilers (gcc, llvm, Kazan, MESA3D) necessary to support the core design work.
-
-The OpenPOWER Foundation is a part of the Linux Foundation, and is directly responsible for the long-term protection and evolution of the Power ISA. Members include IBM, Google, NVidia, Raptor Engineering, University of Oregon and many more.
+The majority of the consortium have been working together for over
+three years on the precursor technical development of the Libre-SOC core
+project, the evolution of which is the lynch-pin and "proving-ground"
+of this grant application. The public record of their achievements
+and team involvement can be found in their public Open Source record
+https://libre-soc.org/.
+
+The Libre-SOC team are internationally experienced software professionals
+who have strong familiarity with state of the art software to silicon
+technologies. They have been supported by two of the co-applicants labs
+CNRS and LIP6 (The applicants being Sorbonne Université and Affiliated
+Entity, CNRS), and many other European based technology development
+groups, which each provide key elements of the project from specialist
+programs such as coriolis2, alliance, HITAS, YAGLE and more, and the
+manufacturing expertise of Imec. Their versatility and experience with
+Libre/Open Source Software also means that they can adapt to unforeseen
+circumstances and can navigate the ever-changing and constantly-evolving
+FOSS landscape with confidence.
+
+The above is critically important in light of the requirement to
+demonstrate access to critical infrastructure, resources and the
+ability to fulfil: with the sole exception of NDA'd Foundry PDKs
+(Physical Design Kits), the entirety of this project is Libre/Open
+Source, both in the tools it utilises, components that it uses, and
+the results that are generated. With there being no restriction on
+the availability of Libre/Open Source software needed to complete the
+project, the Participants correspondingly have no impediment. We also
+have a proven strategy to deal with the NDA's: a "parallel track" where
+at least one Participant (Sorbonne Université, LIP6 Lab) has signed
+TSMC Foundry NDAs, and consequently there is no impediment there, either.
+
+Sorbonne Université (SU) is a multidisciplinary, research-intensive
+and world class academic institution. It was created on January 1st
+2018 as the merger of two first-class research intensive universities,
+UPMC (University Pierre and Marie Curie) and Paris-Sorbonne. Sorbonne
+Université is now organized with three faculties: humanities, medicine
+and science each with the wide-ranging autonomy necessary to conduct
+its ambitious programs in both research and education. SU counts 53,500
+students, 3,400 professor-researchers and 3,600 administrative and
+technical staff members. SU is intensively engaged in European research
+projects (163 FP7 projects and 195 H2020 projects). Its computer
+science laboratory, LIP6, is internationally recognized as a leading
+research institute.
+
+LIP6 is a Joint Research Unit of both SU (Sorbonne Université)
+and CNRS. Both entities invest resources within LIP6 so CNRS is then
+an Affiliated Entity linked to SU. According to SU-CNRS agreement
+regarding LIP6, SU, as a full partner, manages the grant for its
+Affiliated Entity, CNRS.
+
+RED Semiconductor Ltd has been established as a commercialisation vehicle,
+sharing the Libre principles of the core Libre-SOC team and bringing
+Semiconductor industry commercial management and technology experience.
+This includes the founders of two successful semiconductor companies
+and a public company chairman. There is also a cross directorship of
+Luke Leighton (of Libre-SOC) giving the company an extensive technology
+market and leadership experience.
+
+NLnet is a Netherlands based public benefit organisation that brings
+to the table over 35 years of European internet history and well over
+two decades of unique real-world experience in funding and supporting
+bottom up internet infrastructure projects around the world - engaging
+some of the best independent researchers and developers. NLnet has
+funded essential work on important infrastructure parts of the internet,
+from the technologies with which the answers from the DNS root of the
+internet can now be trusted, all the way up to key standards for email
+security, transport layer security, email authenticity, and a lot more
+- on virtually every layer of the internet, from securing core routing
+protocols to browser security plugins, from firmware security to open
+source LTE networks.
+
+Most recently NLnet is hosting the NGI0 Discovery, NGI0 PET and NGI
+Assure open calls as part of the Next Generation Internet research and
+development initiative, of which NLnet supports 300+ open source software,
+open hardware and open standards projects to build a more resilient,
+sustainable and trustworthy internet.
+
+NLnet, a Stichting / Foundation, has been Libre-SOC’s funding source
+from the beginning and fundamentally understands our technology and
+direction of travel. As well as providing augmentation under existing
+EU Grants funding for technology opportunities that we will benefit from
+but are yet to be identified, they are a fundamental sounding board that
+will be invaluable to the project moving forward.
+
+Regarding the extreme high-end computing resources necessary to complete
+the exceptionally-demanding task of VLSI development and Layout, we
+find that high-end modern laptops and desktop computers (with 64 to
+256 GB of RAM) are perfectly adequate. However in the event that our
+immediately-accessible computing resources are not adequate, both Sorbonne
+Université (LIP6 and CNRS) and Libre-SOC qualify for access to Fed4Fire
+(https://www.fed4fire.eu/- grant agreement No 732638) which gives us
+direct access to large clusters (100+) high-end servers. Additionally,
+we are specifying some of these high-end computers in our budget, and
+the software to run on them is entirely Libre-Licensed and within our
+combined experience to deploy.
+
+We have established that Embecosm Gmbh and Vrull.eu are some of the
+world's leading experts in Compiler Technology. We will put out to
+tender a Contract with an initial evaluation phase, followed by a TRL
+4/5 Research phase for the prerequisite compilers (gcc, llvm, Kazan,
+MESA3D) necessary to support the core design work.
+
+The OpenPOWER Foundation is a part of the Linux Foundation,
+and is directly responsible for the long-term protection
+and evolution of the Power ISA. Members include IBM, Google,
+NVidia, Raptor Engineering, University of Oregon and many more.
https://openpowerfoundation.org/membership/current-members/.
-The Chair of the newly-formed ISA Working Group is Paul Mackerras, and the Technical Chair is Toshaan Bharvani. Both of these people have been kindly attending bi-weekly meetings with the Libre-SOC Team for over 18 months, and we have kept them apprised of ongoing developments, particularly with the Draft SVP64 ISA Extension. They are both going out of their way to regularly advise us on how to go about a successful RFC Process for SVP64, and we deeply appreciate their support.
-
-HELIX Technology's involvement, as a potential customer and potential user of the Libre-SOC technology, will give focus to the deliverable of the project. They have world-leading expertise in Antenna Technology, and in the mathematics behind the Signal Processing required for GNSS/GPS. We have deliberately selected them to ensure the ambition of our overall project.
-
-We therefore have a cohesive cooperative team of experience from concept to customer product and a supporting cast of specialist technical support that are an established practiced team.
-
-As a last point: the creation of the teams for this project is critical for RED Semiconductors Limited and Libre-SOC. We have the benefit of having the core of an International Technology Headhunter Research Team amongst the directors of RED Semiconductor Limited, giving us the capability to ensure the project is fully manned in the required timescales without the need to externally resource recruitment services, and this is included in RED’s management manpower.
+The Chair of the newly-formed ISA Working Group is Paul Mackerras, and
+the Technical Chair is Toshaan Bharvani. Both of these people have
+been kindly attending bi-weekly meetings with the Libre-SOC Team for
+over 18 months, and we have kept them apprised of ongoing developments,
+particularly with the Draft SVP64 ISA Extension. They are both going
+out of their way to regularly advise us on how to go about a successful
+RFC Process for SVP64, and we deeply appreciate their support.
+
+HELIX Technology's involvement, as a potential customer and potential
+user of the Libre-SOC technology, will give focus to the deliverable of
+the project. They have world-leading expertise in Antenna Technology,
+and in the mathematics behind the Signal Processing required for
+GNSS/GPS. We have deliberately selected them to ensure the ambition of
+our overall project.
+
+We therefore have a cohesive cooperative team of experience from concept
+to customer product and a supporting cast of specialist technical support
+that are an established practiced team.
+
+As a last point: the creation of the teams for this project is critical
+for RED Semiconductors Limited and Libre-SOC. We have the benefit of
+having the core of an International Technology Headhunter Research
+Team amongst the directors of RED Semiconductor Limited, giving us
+the capability to ensure the project is fully manned in the required
+timescales without the need to externally resource recruitment services,
+and this is included in RED’s management manpower.
projects / libreriscv.git / commitdiff