Schedule

Proposal

The Libre-SOC Project

designing a quad core hybrid 3D CPU-GPU-VPU entirely in python

The Libre-SOC Project aims to bring to market a mass-volume System-on-a-Chip suitable for use in smartphones netbooks tablets and chromebooks, which is end-user programmable right to the bedrock. No spying backdoors, no treacherous DRM. Libre to the core (literally).

The Libre-SOC Project aims to bring to market a mass-volume System-on-a-Chip suitable for use in smartphones netbooks tablets and chromebooks, which is end-user programmable right to the bedrock. No spying backdoors, no treacherous DRM.

Python and standard Libre Project Management is used throughout:

  • nmigen, a python-based HDL, is a fundamental and critical strategic choice in creating the hardware.
  • An IEEE754 FP hardware library has been developed using nmigen/python, as are hundreds of thousands of unit tests
  • An OpenPOWER ISA simulator is written in python, and is actually a PLY compiler based on the GardenSnake example
  • Several thousand unit tests for the HDL and simulator are written in python
  • coriolis2, the VLSI ASIC layout toolchain, is a mixed c++ python application
  • Even the Standard Cell Library being used, called FlexLib, by Chips4Makers, is in python.

To say that python is critical to the project would be a massive understatement. This talk will give a brief overview of the above areas and give a glimpse into why python was chosen for each.