VSDOpen 2022 Online Conference
- VSDOpen 2022 is an online conference to share open-source research with the community and promote hardware design mostly done by the student community.
- VSDOpen 2022 is based on the theme "How to lower the cost to learn, build, and tapeout chips ?" , which will provide a platform to community to build stronger designs and strengthen the future of Chip design.
- VSDOpen is envisioned to create a community based revolution in semiconductor hardware technology.
- The open source attitude is required to bring out the talent and innovation from the community who are in remote part of world and have least access to the technologies. And now Google support will help to bring the vision to execution by VSD team.
VSDOpen 2022 Conference Track
The open source design environment is the first step towards the hardware revolution. A leaner needs few open source design to explore, learn and design something on similar line. Improved accessibility of open-source IC design ecosystems opens the opportunity for innovation as well as a chance to increase diversity by stretching the concept of who can be an IC designer. Historical success in the open-source area was the introduction of RISC-V by numerous companies and academic institutions. Entire microprocessor ecosystems, which was ruled by proprietary ISAs, firmware, and compilers, can now be freely accessed and designed for competitive performance.
A design is incomplete unless put on silicon and tested on board. Access to silicon was next to impossible until recently, Google and SkyWater Technology have open-sourced SkyWater’s 130nm technology, which has given an option for researchers, educators, and even hobbyists to do design experiments. This technology works fine for designing a useful analog, mixed-signal and RF circuits as well as digital processors and accelerators with moderate performance. Google is sponsoring SkyWater Multi-Project Wafer shuttles for any open-source project on SkyWater 130nm technology and SKY90-FD and very soon it will open up SkyWater’s commercial 90nm CMOS process technology as well as a GlobalFoundries 180nm technology .
Open sourcing more PDKs is a critical step in the development of the open source silicon ecosystem:
- Open source EDA tools can now add support for multiple process technologies.
- Researchers can produce fully-reproducible designs against multiple technology baselines.
- Popular open source IP blocks can be ported to different process technologies.
To develop good IC designers, it is important to provide access to tools, flows and design enablements so the new generation gets excited about VLSI design, as early in life as possible. The young designer can create bigger and complex design in open source domain as they learn and grow in open environment.
To understand a design we need a perfect document, which will be base to better performing design. Good documentation helps to understand IP specs and usage effectively. Students do not have access to proper documentation which will help them to integrate designs. Having well documented design can help training of individuals and how to use that IP effectively.
S.T.E.M-based education has become the need of the hour, the learning pedagogy is focused on pure learning through experience. A comprehensive STEM education strategy is urgently needed to maintain Semiconductor talent pipeline and technological edge. For semiconductor research, design, and manufacturing requires access to the best and brightest scientists and engineers requiring STEM proficiency. To improve our STEM education system will require long-term action with a sustained commitment to funding over decades
As semiconductor innovation and global chip demand continue their inextricable rise, government and industry must work together to maintain this foundational, indispensable technology.
A key factor in cutting-edge research is reproducibility, or the ability for researchers from different institutions to repeat each other’s experiments and improve upon them. By migrating to an open source framework, researchers can more easily share reproducible results, contribute to the creation of open source datasets to enhance future designs, and advance IPs. The battle for open source acceptance has been won. The next battle is creating a sustainable funding mechanism for open source developers. This funds will help the Innovation cycles to accelerate. Research and development (R&D) is an important driver of economic growth as it spurs innovation, invention, and progress.
Industries are coming ahead to support the open source initiative in Hardware domain to bring revolution similar to software. And are providing favourable support and structure to work around the projects. Collaboration of industries and open source community will help drive innovation for the application and silicon engineers designing in these semiconductor ecosystem.
Conference Agenda
Time (IST) | Conference Talk | Speaker |
08:55-09:00 | Introduction to VSDOpen 2022 | Kunal Ghosh, VSD |
09:00-09:10 | VSDOpen 2022 Inauguration & "Open Source Design Environment" | Prof. V.Kamakoti, IIT Madras |
09:10-09:20 | "Build Custom Silicon with Google" | Tim Ansell, Google |
09:20-09:30 | "Open source tools to accelerate silicon design" | Mehdi Saligane, University of Michigan |
09:30-09:40 | "A New World of Innovation" | Avina Verma, Synopsys |
09:40-09:50 | "Govt. step in to boost Semiconductor" | Robert Mains, Chips Alliance |
09:50-10:00 | "BigSpicy: do whole-circuit Spice simulations" | Arya Reais-Parsi, University of California, Berkeley |
10:00-10:10 | "STEM Education base of complete ecosystem" | Prof.Nanditha Rao, IIIT Bangalore |
10:10-10:20 | "Automated flow for rapid prototyping of hardware accelerators in ZYNQ FPGAs" | Shrihari Gokulachandran, University of Texas at Austin |
10:20-10:30 | "Startup born from Open source Ecosystem" | Lavanya Jagadeeswaran, Vyoma Systems |
10:30-10:40 | "Impact of Hackathon" | Sumanto Kar, IIT Bombay M.tech |
10:40-11:00 | Networking | VSD Community |
Conference Take away !!
Why attend VSDOpen?
- VSDOpen is open forum to demonstrate the work done by community in open source domain.
- VSDOpen brings all like minded people in open source community and work towards strengthening the Hardware Revolution.
- Power-packed high-intensity Cloud Lab Tutorials on Physical Verification and Physical Design using SKY130 and opensource toolchain for learners and experimenters
- LIVE online conference with expert talks on techniques of semiconductor workforce development at a massive scale of 10,000 students per year
- Showcase VSD student’s chips and IPs which went for tapeouts, which would encourage other students globally to learn to do tapeouts for free
- Announcement of VSD upcoming projects on SoC generators, full-chip high-speed performance analysis using SPICE, IP generation flow for GF180 and PCB development for student projects
