[libre-riscv-dev] Michael - New Member

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Wednesday, January 22, 2020, <mtnolan2640 at gmail.com> wrote:

> > hi michael, welcome to the libre soc.
>
> Thanks! Still figuring out how to use the mailing list so I apologize if I
> make a few mistakes.


no problem. treat it as a technical conversation, do look up "mailing list
etiquette" (particularly on trim context, relevant subjectlines and use
inline replies), and always know that you're welcome to ask questions any
time.


> > can i ask, what's your background
> My backround is in FPGA/hardware design, as well as embedded programming.
> I've worked on several FPGA projects such as: a custom CPU core (with
> assembler, linker, FORTH interpreter, and rudimentary C compiler),


niiice.


>  as well as an (unfinished) ethernet controller for my ECP5 Versa dev
> board.


the ECP5 is really good.  and supported by yosys very efficiently.  we
looked at using a stack of them with an ethernet backbone rather than One
Monster FPGA.

I also enjoy embedded C/C++, and did some of that during my internship at
> Georgia Tech last semester.


oh good. we do need people for the MESA 3D driver.


>
> > and what intrigues you about this project?
>
> I like the idea of having open source hardware and software (I recently
> bought an ARM laptop because it in particular has very few closed source
> blobs),


so you're familiar with how painful it is to not have full source code.
upgrades stopping hardware working entirely or cutting you off from
networking, that sort of thing

 and the idea of having an open source CPU+GPU intrigues me. Also, I very
> much enjoyed writing my custom CPU back in 2016, and this looks to be even
> more interesting than that.



ohh yes.  Mitch Alsup kindly explained, over a six month period, how we can
put together a design that will piss all over Intel and ARM, based around
the iconic CDC 6600.  it's surprisingly very little actual effort
(relatively few gates and it scales O(N) with the number of instructions
per clock), it's just really challenging to get your head round.

i will email you two of Mitch's book chapters, they augment "Design of a
Computer" which you can find online.  they make fascinating reading and you
will *not* find his insights in academic literature despite him being one
of the world's leading computer architects.

l.



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