[Arm-netbook] Libre RISC-V RV64GC SoC

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

so, ahh i would say it's christmas come early but it really *is* christmas :)

i've been speaking with madhu, the head of the shakti team, they're
extremely busy with a tapeout deadline of 1st january 2018, so in
about a month or so's time he will have more time to talk, and it will
be possible to begin properly planning.

unlike many people to whom i've pitched the idea of an entirely libre
SoC, madhu instead responded, "ok sure, what would you like?".
initially being rather confused by this positive response, i outlined
this page http://rhombus-tech.net/riscv/shakti/m_class/ and slowly
began asking more questions.

it turns out that the indian government has given him a mandate to
create THE entire range of computing platforms.  in speaking to him
about why, well it was pretty obvious: if you were to have everyone in
india buy a foreign imported smartphone - and that's just one market -
it would LITERALLY bankrupt the country with the exodus of cash.  so
they have a law requiring that foreign countries, if they wish to sell
product in india, that 70% of it must be manufactured locally.  apple
has apparently asked if they can work around this to get more
foreign-made smartphones into india... they've been told unequivocably
NO.

the sheer scale of the opportunity has not only companies - you can
guess who they are - trying to bribe him to shut down the entire
programme, but also companies offering free tools and more.  this
means that with a ZERO financial outlay it is possible to get three
(only three) designs through tapeout *AND* the MVP (multi-vendor
programme) which will result in around 100 sample bare dies being made
(entirely free), of which maybe 30% of those can be expected to
actually result in a functioning chip.  that's still 30 chips for a
zero financial outlay where normally the cost would be around $5m, one
each at at 20nm, 28nm and one more at 40nm.

the only condition is: the entire SoC *must* be entirely libre.
that's right down to the bedrock: not just the entire ASIC design but
also the software stack running on it.  you know the reasons why:
"Intel Management Engine".

it just so happens that the overlap between what we would like to see
happen and what the shakti team has been set up to achieve happen to
align near-100%.

this is an incredible opportunity.

there are four main tasks / details which need to be taken care of:

* designing and specifying the SoC so that it is DESIRABLE in a
specific target market or markets
* finding the right team(s) of people with links to the free software
community to target 3D, Video and so on.
* finding a customer base large enough to warrant going to production
* bridging finance (if that customer base isn't going to pay cash up-front).

now, it turns out that *IF* the processor is designed SUCH THAT it is
desirable for use in the indian schools market - either as laptops,
netbooks, tablets or desktop machines (laptops would be better), THEN
it is a near-automatic process of getting to market, orders of 10
million units are not a problem.

note that *this is exactly what the EOMA68 Libre Laptop Housing is
for*, and would be an immediate base on which to get demo units in
front of people, very very quickly (just have to take care of making
an EOMA68-RISCV64 Card).

so, any ideas, input etc. welcomed.

l.