Business Objectives

we are creating a full libre architected hybrid CPU/VPU/GPU for manufacturers who need security through full transparency of software and hardware, with greatly reduced RTL licensing costs, unlike other chips in this field which have unauditable architectures and proprietary drivers.

  • 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 able to trust it
  • the source code shall be available at all times for all components for BUSINESS reasons, making development and use of SDKs dead simple 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)
  • Because both 3D and VPU hardware and software are fully transparent, application development time and debugging complexity is massively reduced.
  • the chip design is being created in commonly-available programming languages, making it easier to understand.
  • the development follows libre project management principles meaning that there is a full audit trail for maintenance and audit purposes which does not need an NDA to review or participate in.
  • the formal proofs make testing and trust much easier.
  • the full transparency leverages experts' willingness to openly assist and help our business succeed, greatly reducing NREs and reducing risk.