Abstract

OpenPiton is the world’s first open source, general-purpose, multithreaded, manycore processor. It provides a research platform that enables full-stack open source prototyping of research ideas, from the back-end scripts for chip layout, up to the applications running on Debian Linux. OpenPiton provides a manycore design suitable for testing research ideas for architecture, networking, security, programming languages, systems, EDA , and more. When using OpenPiton, there is less need for institutional knowledge to reduce development time thanks to the framework’s push-button scalability, FPGA - and ASIC -verified design, and validation suite. Our 25-core Piton ASIC was taped out in IBM ’s 32nm process targeting 1GHz and with 460 million transistors, it is likely the largest working academic microprocessor ever built.