FOSDEM 2022

Libre/Open VLSI and FPGA Hardware, Simulation and Verification Dev Room

Devroom Proposal

https://submission.fosdem.org/submission/devroom

Title: Libre/Open VLSI and FPGA Hardware, Simulation and Verification Dev Room

Updated Elaborate description (including possible topics)

  • Open Hardware projects
  • VLSI ASIC Design and Manufacture
    • Libre/Open DIY Foundries (nanoscale 3D printing)
    • Libre/Open VLSI tools and toolflow
    • Libre/Open VLSI Cell Libraries
    • VLSI Simulation and Verification
  • FPGAs
    • Libre/Open FPGA designs
    • FPGA toolchains and Reverse-Engineering
    • FPGA workflow
  • VLSI RTL and HDL
    • Advanced and innovative alternative HDL tools
    • Formal Correctness Proofs
    • Testing methodologies
    • Hardware Trust (and how to break it)
  • Software Engineering as applied to Hardware
    • Continuous Integration for VLSI
    • Automated tool development (RTL to GDS-II)
    • Automated testing

Why does it fit FOSDEM

There has been a lot of progress happening in the last few years regarding libre/free chip technology. From RISC-V and OpenPOWER to attempts to create libre/free processes to make your own chips. Various countries have been catching up and helping and building up their semiconductorr industries, some even pushing libre/free toolchains. E.g. EU sponsors various projects to work in this field to create open toolchains.

Meanwhile others push the boundaries to liberate former closed source toolchains for FPGAs. While an often neglected topic, a lot of work happens by various fantastic players all around the world. We hope to bring some attention to these areas which we basicly all too often take as a given when using computers or electronics. We therefore hope to give Open Hardware and their respective toolchains a small platform, all the way from silicon to PCB.

Note to organisers: we don't mind merging with another devroom (then helping out), as long as the words "Libre/Open Hardware" are included in the devroom title, and the VLSI and FPGA topics are included. NLnet now sponsors dozens of hardware projects alone, and the google skywater 130nm project with e-fabless has produced a massive new innovative community that simply did not exist last year. We are also happy for other (smaller) devrooms to merge with this one.

Preferred slot: Full Day

Call for Papers

This is a new devroom dedicated to Libre/Open VLSI, aka "Nanoscale 3D Printing".

What is FOSDEM?

Stolen/Borrowed from the website:

FOSDEM is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. Every year, thousands of developers of free and open source software from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels. ... FOSDEM 2022 will take place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 February 2022. It will be an online event.

Important stuff:

Desirable topics:

This devroom welcomes anything related to the topic of nanoscale 3D printing - more commonly known as "VLSI ASIC design". If you are making an ASIC, or designing one, or using FPGAs, or developing an FPGA Board, or developing tools and techniques that make VLSI ASIC design easier, we'd love to hear from you. Here's a list of topics:

  • Open Hardware projects
  • VLSI ASIC Design and Manufacture
    • Libre/Open DIY Foundries (nanoscale 3D printing)
    • Libre/Open VLSI tools and toolflow
    • Libre/Open VLSI Cell Libraries
    • VLSI Simulation and Verification
  • VLSI Tools in use or in development
    • Silicon-proven (QFlow, coriolis2, OpenLANE)
    • Under development (LibreEDA, other)
    • Advances in Algorithmics in Place and Route and Layout
  • FPGAs
    • Libre/Open FPGA designs
    • FPGA toolchains and Reverse-Engineering
    • FPGA workflow
  • VLSI RTL and HDL
    • Advanced and innovative alternative HDL tools
    • Formal Correctness Proofs
    • Testing methodologies
    • Hardware Trust (and how to break it)
  • Software Engineering as applied to Hardware
    • Continuous Integration for VLSI
    • Automated tool development (RTL to GDS-II)
    • Automated testing

Topic overlap

There is quite a lot of overlap this year with:

It is entirely up to you as a speaker which devroom you choose: the main reason for a new VLSI devroom this year is because it is a rapidly expanding area formerly entirely NDA'd.

How to submit your proposal

To submit a talk, please visit the FOSDEM 2022 Pentabarf website (the mystery of whether pentabarf means barfing in 5 directions or in 5 colors has not been solved yet).

Create an event and click on Show all in the top right corner to display the full form. Make sure you choose the right devroom in the track drop-down menu (so that we see it rather than another devroom's organisers)

What should be in your submission

  • name
  • short bio
  • contact info
  • title (funny titles are required/appreciated)
  • abstract (what you're going talk about)
  • duration

Things to be aware of

  • The reference time will be Brussels local lime (CET) https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/belgium/brussels
  • Talks have to be pre-recorded in advance between the first two weeks of January, and will be streamed during the event.
  • Q/A session will be taken live, just after each recorded talk. As such, please make sure that you will be online and available on the day of the event.
  • A facility will be provided for people watching to chat between themselves.
  • A facility will be provided for people watching to submit questions.

Important Dates

  • December 28th: submission deadline
    • FAQ - is the submission deadline final?
      • Technically speaking, you can submit talks till pentabarf closes, which should be somewhere in January
      • However, talks submitted before the 29th get a higher precedence
  • ASAP: announcement selected talks
  • January: speakers are contacted to upload pre-record sessions
  • February 6th: FOSDEM! (with live Q&A during recorded talks)

Contact us

TODO

  • write to openhardware dev room mailing list (private archives)
    • 13nov2022. no response. assume dead list DONE
    • therefore take responsibility for writing proposal DONE
  • write proposal DONE 14nov2022
  • submit proposal DONE 14no42022
  • CfP TODO
  • Talk to devroom managers ONGOING
  • contact interested people
    • https://www.crowdsupply.com/great-scott-gadgets/luna (ktemkin)
    • danielgrosse https://twitter.com/daniel_grosse
    • Ganesen Narayanasamy, IBM India, Education Course
    • openwifi https://github.com/open-sdr/openwifi/issues/99
    • libresilicon (actual DIY Foundry equipment)
    • opentapeoutdev
    • openlane / openroad
    • Staf (Chips4Makers)
    • efabless
    • libre-soc
    • LIP6 / CNRS (coriolis2)
    • apertus https://www.apertus.org/axiom-ecosystem
    • NLnet (to help with outreach)
    • Crowdsupply (ditto)
    • KiCAD and other EDA tools
    • LibreEDA developer (tkramer)
    • Pine64 https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineNote
    • Bunnie, xobs (https://www.bunniestudios.com/)
    • Tim Ansell / Claire Wolfe symbiflow et al https://symbiflow.github.io
    • Libera.Chat channels:
      • yosys DONE 29nov2021
      • opentapeoutdev DONE 29nov2021
      • symbiflow DONE 29nov2021
      • openpower DONE 29nov2021
      • libre-soc DONE 29nov2021
    • Twitter channels
      • Initial CfP https://twitter.com/lkcl/status/1465290569681457157 DONE 29nov2021 @Daniel_Grosse @GanesanBlue @TLLim888 @thepine64 @Chips4Makers @bunniestudios @librecores @efabless @LIP6_lab @OpenPOWERorg @OTapeout @YosysHQ @NLnetFDN @NgiPointer @symbiflow @mithro @pepijndevos @crowd_supply @jxjputaoshu