[1]https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/08/11/google-program-to-free-chips-boosts-univer
sity-semiconductor-design/

   August 11, 2022

   A Google-led program to design and manufacture chips for free is
   becoming popular among researchers and computer enthusiasts.

   The search giant’s [2]open silicon program is providing the tools for
   anyone to design chips, which then get manufactured. Google foots the
   entire bill, from a chip’s conception to delivery of the final product
   in a user’s hand.

   Google’s Open MPW program includes an open-source design toolkit from a
   company called EFabless, which also manages the program.

   Enthusiasts and researchers have to submit their chip design, which
   then gets manufactured in the factories of SkyWater on the 130nm
   process. The submission deadline for the latest [3]Open MPW program is
   September 12.

   Open MPW’s popularity can be measured by the number of projects using
   Efabless’ EDA tools. Chips from about 240 open-source silicon projects
   via Efabless’ tools will be manufactured in Skywater’s factories, Mike
   Wishart, CEO of Efabless.

   “The total projects posted on our site are like 570. That has gone
   extremely well. It’s diverse, from 25 countries,” Wishart said.

   Efabless had about 160 tapeouts in 2021, and had no tapeouts in 2020.

   Efabless provides a simple design EDA tool to make chips, which is
   mostly about dragging and dropping the core elements inside a chip. An
   open-source PDK (process design kit) prepares the chip for fabrication
   in factories.

   The Open MPW program added recent partners, including the U.S.
   Department of Defense, which last month poured $15 million into the
   project to get open-source chips made on SkyWater’s 90nm process.
   GlobalFoundries also joined the alliance and will also manufacture
   chips on the 180nm node.

   The manufacturing technology provided through the project is very old,
   but it is cost-effective. Intel, Apple and others make expensive chips
   on the more advanced processes such as 5nm, which uses cutting-edge
   technology and provides the fastest computing in devices.

   Open MPW is popular in academia and research, and for those
   experimenting or testing chips and need small batches, Wishart said.

   “Our incentive is to make it simple for more and more people and grow a
   community around those executing designs… [on] nodes that are more
   accessible to them and therefore lower costs,” Wishart said.

   Typically, chips can be expensive to manufacture, and factories are
   open to corporations. But Open MPW makes factories available to
   researchers and students.

   “There was an unmet need in academia, that was overwhelming and not
   appreciated because they didn’t know what they could get,” Wishart
   said.

   The open-source toolkits cover the full concept of chip development,
   from conceptualization to delivery of parts. Some universities may have
   deals with chip factories, but students at the undergraduate, master’s
   and PhD programs still have poor awareness of chip fabrication.

References

   1. https://www.hpcwire.com/2022/08/11/google-program-to-free-chips-boosts-university-semiconductor-design/
   2. https://developers.google.com/silicon
   3. https://efabless.com/open_shuttle_program