-# NLNet Grants approved: Power ISA under consideration
-
Across several projects, nearly EUR 400,000 worth of additional funding
applications were put in, and around EUR 200,000 to 250,000 of those have
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
an initial application to develop the core of a privacy-respecting trustable
The [additional proposals](https://libre-riscv.org/nlnet_proposals/)
expand on the core, to cover:
-* Formal Mathematical correctness proofs for the entire processor, including
+* formal mathematical correctness proofs for the entire processor, including
the FPU (no more Intel Pentium FPDIV bugs...)
-* a special Video Acceleration focus, adding video decode instructions
-* an additional 3D Driver based on AMDVLK or MESA
+* a special video acceleration focus, adding video decode instructions
+* an additional 3D driver based on AMDVLK or MESA
* some funding to be able to properly develop and document ISA standards
-* a Wishbone Streaming enhancement to add A/V timecode stamps to Wishbone B4,
- and to develop independent libre-licensed peripherals as examples.
-* two inter-related proposals to develop Libre Cell Libraries
- ([Chips4Makers](http://chips4makers.be)), to be used
- by a team at [LIP6.fr](http://lip6.fr)
- using the Alliance / Coriolis2 ASIC layout tools.
- Additional funding will go to the nmigen team for ASIC improvements and
- special integration with Coriolis2.
-
-The goal here is to get to a working, commercially-saleable 180nm single-core
-ASIC at around 300 to 350mhz, suitable for use as a high-end Embedded
-Controller. Staf from Chips4Makers will act as the "NDA firebreak" between
+* a Wishbone streaming enhancement to add A/V timecode stamps to Wishbone B4,
+ and to develop independent libre-licensed peripherals as examples
+* two interrelated proposals to develop libre cell Libraries
+ ([Chips4Makers](http://chips4makers.be)), to be used by a team at
+ [LIP6.fr](http://lip6.fr) using the Alliance / Coriolis2 ASIC layout
+ tools; Additional funding will go to the nmigen team for ASIC
+ improvements and special integration with Coriolis2
+
+The goal here is to get to a working, commercially viable 180 nm single-core
+ASIC at around 300 to 350 MHz, suitable for use as a high-end embedded
+controller. Staf from Chips4Makers will act as the "NDA firebreak" between
us and TSMC.
All of these have been approved by NLNet, and, crucially, the external
initial application was so small. The reason was very simple: both Jacob
and I have unique low-income circumstances that simply do not need European /
Western style living expenses. Whereas, when we get to much more specialist
-tasks (such as formal mathematical proofs, Video assembly-level drivers,
-and so on), these fields are so specialist that finding people who are good
-*and* who are able to exist on student or S.E.Asia level funding is just not
+tasks (such as formal mathematical proofs, video assembly-level drivers,
+and so on), these fields are so specialized that finding people who are good
+*and* who are able to exist on student or southeast-asia-level funding is just not
practical.
-We therefore made sure that the calculations were based around an approximate
+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
-International Tax Agreements, this being donations, that's equivalent to a
+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).
+business, you have to take into consideration corporation tax / employee
+insurance as well).
-We therefore need to find people willing to help do the work, and what is
-really nice: NLNet will donate money to them for completion of that work!
+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!
Therefore, if you've always wanted to work on a 3D processor, its drivers
and its source code, do get in touch.
-# PowerPC.
+### PowerPC
This is a
[long story](http://lists.libre-riscv.org/pipermail/libre-riscv-dev/2019-October/003035.html)
that was picked up by
[Phoronix](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Libre-RISC-V-Eyeing-POWER)
-before we had a chance to make any kind of real "announcement". That said:
+before we had a chance to make any kind of real "announcement." However,
we're always really grateful to Michael for his coverage of the Libre SoC,
-as it always sparks some insightful, useful and engaging discussions.
+as it always sparks some insightful, useful, and engaging discussions.
The summary is this: Libre and Open contributors to RISC-V have been
disregarded for several years. **Long** before I joined the RISC-V
-Mailing lists, it was *well-known* within that small and tightly-knit
-community that if you were not associated directly with UCB, you were
+mailing lists, it was *well-known* within that small and tightly-knit
+community that if you were not associated directly with UC Berkeley, you were
basically not welcome. Caveat: if you signed the NDA-like agreement
which conflicts directly with, for example, the Debian Charter and
-the whole purpose of Libre Licenses, then you got a "voice" and you
+the whole purpose of libre licenses, then you got a "voice" and you
got access to the closed and secretive RISC-V resources and mailing
lists.
Michael puts it extremely well: I have absolutely no problem with the
ISA itself, it's the abuse of power and the flagrant ignoring and abuse
-of basic tenets of Trademark Law that are just completely untenable.
+of basic tenets of trademark law that are just completely untenable.
Not only that: one well-paid employee of SiFive has *repeatedly* engaged
-in defamation attacks for over eighteen months. Even raising a formal
+in defamation attacks for over eighteen months, even raising a formal
complaint through the newly-established relationship with the Linux
Foundation failed to keep that individual under control. Also adversely
impacted was the newly-established Open Graphics Alliance initiative,
which was independently started by Pixilica back in October,
-proposed at SIGGRAPH 2019 and welcomed by world-leading 3D Industry
+proposed at SIGGRAPH 2019 and welcomed by world-leading 3D industry
experts.
At some point you just have to appreciate that to continue to support
expand the Power ISA in a safe and controlled fashion, so could other
adopters.
* that the core OpenPower members had *already been discussing* how to make
- sure that new Libre Teams with a commercial focus could join and not
+ sure that new Libre teams with a commercial focus could join and not
have any transparency / patent / NDA / royalty / licensing conflicts
of interest. The only major thing that the other members wanted was
- a "P.R. blackout period", right around the time of announcement of
- new Standards, which sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
+ a "public relations blackout period," right around the time of announcement of
+ new standards, which sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
* that IBM will be providing a royalty-free unlimited license grant
for *all* of its patents, as long as firstly the licensees do not
make any effort to assert patents **against** IBM, and secondly,
as long as implementations are fully-compliant with the OpenPower
- Standards.
+ standards.
* that there is discussion underway as to the creation and maintenance
- of Formal Compliance Test Suites, just as there is today with the
+ of formal compliance test suites, just as there is today with the
RISC-V ISA.
-* that the use of a Certification Mark - not a Service Mark or a Trade Mark -
- is the most appropriate thing for ISA Standards. I mentioned this
+* that the use of a certification mark - not a service mark or a trade mark -
+ is the most appropriate thing for ISA standards. I mentioned this
only briefly however it takes a lot more than 15 minutes to properly
explain, so I am not going to push it: Hugh is doing so much already.
It was a very busy and positive conversation, where it is clear that
we caught them right at the beginning of the process. Consequently,
my discussion with Hugh was just at the right time. Without that,
-the existing OpenPower Members might never have really truly believed
-that any Libre **Commercial** project would ever in fact come forward
-(that the steps that they were taking were purely hypothetical).
-Out of the blue (pun intended) I contact Hugh and highlight that no,
+the existing OpenPower members might never have really truly believed
+that any Libre **commercial** project would ever in fact come forward
+and that the steps the OpenPower members were taking were purely hypothetical.
+Out of the blue (pun intended), I contact Hugh and highlight that no,
it's not hypothetical.
The next step, then, will be to wait until mid-january when people come
-back from holiday, and wait for the announcement of the Open Power
-License Agreement. Hugh reassures me that there's nothing spectacularly
+back from holiday, and wait for the announcement of the OpenPower
+license agreement. Hugh reassures me that there's nothing spectacularly
controversial in it, and given his long-standing experience of several
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
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 Open Power Agreement,
-however given that the majority of the tasks are ISA-independent, it
+bit challenging when we have not yet reviewed the OpenPower agreement,
+however, given that the majority of the tasks are ISA-independent, it
will actually work out fine.
The only other major thing: what the heck do we do with the libre-riscv.org
domain? As you can see on the mailing list decision, we decided to go
-with a *userspace* RV64GC dual-ISA front-end. **userspace** RISC-V POSIX
+with a *userspace* RV64GC dual-ISA front-end. **Userspace** RISC-V POSIX
(Linux / Android) applications will work perfectly well, as will **userspace**
PowerISA POSIX applications, however the **kernel** (supervisor) space will
be entirely PowerISA.
-The Video and 3D acceleration opcodes will be **entirely in the Power ISA**.
-We are sick and tired of the RISC-V Foundation's blatant mismanagement:
-therefore we will comply to the absolute minimal letter with RV64GC for
-the benefit of our users, backers and sponsors, however RISC-V and the
+The video and 3D acceleration opcodes will be **entirely in the Power ISA**.
+We are sick and tired of the RISC-V Foundation's blatant mismanagement.
+Therefore, we will comply to the absolute minimal letter with RV64GC for
+the benefit of our users, backers, and sponsors. However, RISC-V and the
RISC-V ISA itself
will no longer receive the benefit of the advancements and innovation
that we have received funding and support to develop.
-Therefore: the assembly-code being written by hand for the Video Acceleration
+So, the assembly-code being written by hand for the video acceleration
side, as well as the 3D drivers for Kazan and MESA, will "flip" from RV64GC
RISC-V over to the Power ISA, which will be fully 3D accelerated with advanced
Simple-V Vector operations, then return back to userspace RISC-V RV64GC ISA
to continue serving the user application.
-Next steps for us include setting up a Foundation under which the processor
-can be developed, and to look towards the next major funding step: USD 10m
-to 20m.
+Next steps for us include setting up a foundation under which the processor
+can be developed, and to look towards the next major funding step: USD 10M
+to 20M.
projects / crowdsupply.git / commitdiff