PragmatIC boost for open source chip design flow
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PragmatIC Semiconductor in the UK is working to make its technology platform compatible with OpenLane, an open source automated RTL to GDSII flow for low cost chip design and production.
The OpenLane open source design flow being used by PragmatIC is based on several components including OpenROAD, Yosys, Magic, Netgen and custom methodology scripts for design, and the company sees it being used for its low cost foundry programme with plastic chips.
This follows projects such as Google’s OpenMPW shuttle program that offers access to no-cost manufacture and TinyTapeout’s templated pipeline for newbies, which makes chip design as easy as arranging logic gates on a web page.
However, designing a chip is a complex process involving multiple parties at every step of the way. To truly lower barriers, no operator can act in isolation: licence-free access must be achieved across the design cycle, from specification and optimisation to manufacturing and testing.
“Our PDK is already compatible with commercial electronic design automation (EDA) software tools, which are worth their weight in gold for advanced semiconductor design, but – cost-wise – can be a significant barrier to entry for low-complexity use cases. By supporting open-source design flows, we can allow access to more people.”
Last year a team of students in Denmark designed and produced a RISC-V chip using open source tools, and PragmatIC has worked with ARM on plastic versions of processors.
- £2.4m AI project to boost plastic chip production
- World’s first native plastic programmable processor
One of the biggest players in the shift towards democratisation is Google. Its open-source silicon initiative smooths a path for developers to create manufacturable silicon designs by providing fully open-source process design kits (PDKs) and toolchains, along with a chance to gain free manufacture through the OpenMPW multi-project wafer program. The only caveat is that the customised PDK is shareable.
This approach both benefits the community, increasing the number of individuals working on the development of accompanying tooling, and provides a pathway to low or no-cost manufacture for entrepreneurs.
As part of the OpenMPW program, efabless offers Caravel, a RISC-V-based, plug-and-play reference system-on-a-chip that accelerates both design and integration time.
A recent project from DARPA in the US called OpenRoad also aims to bridge the cost and expertise gaps that system designers encounter. This has open-source semiconductor design automation tools to enable automated, 24-hour design. The project encompasses OpenLane, a free, automated register transfer language (RTL) to GDSII design flow, which outputs the final chip layout, in standard file format, ready for fabrication.
Pragmatic’s flexible integrated circuit (FlexIC) technology already costs orders of magnitude less than silicon semiconductors and is significantly quicker to produce, allowing designs to be iterated and chips produced in just weeks, rather than months.
- Open source chip design language is based around Python
- LPython boosts compilation for embedded designs
“This is great news for researchers and entrepreneurs who may be bursting with bright ideas but lacking the financial clout necessary to realise their projects. However, it’s also good news for semiconductor development: an open development model not only helps lower the barriers to entry, it creates a broader ecosystem and allows innovation to thrive,” says the company.
PragmatIC has also recently announced a collaboration with Europractice and imec to bridge the gap between academia and industry by providing affordable access to semiconductor fabrication through its multi-project wafer services targeting start-ups and academic spin-offs.
- imec, Europractice offer PragmatIC plastic chip multiproject wafers
- Partnership to enable open source ASIC manufacturing
“We also have an ambition to work with the UK semiconductor community to connect multiple open-access fabs, within industry and academia, that can reinvigorate the UK semiconductor sector and develop new skills across the whole value chain,” it said. Executive director and Former CEO Scott White is a member of the newly announced Semiconductor Advisory board in the UK to promote exactly this kind of programme.
“For Pragmatic, contributing to democratisation of IC design will encourage use and drive enrichment of our technology. On a wider scale, in addition to advancing innovation, it will help to cultivate an ecosystem of developers and designers, bringing further jobs and skills to the community, and help mitigate the supply-chain issues that have plagued industry over the past few years,” says the company.
www.pramaticsemi.com; github.com/The-OpenROAD-Project/OpenLane
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