BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:A New Era of Open-Source System-on-Chip Design - Prof Christopher 
 Batten - Cornell University
DTSTART:20180516T151500Z
DTEND:20180516T161500Z
UID:TALK104269@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Greaves
DESCRIPTION:Open-source software has been a critical enabler for tremendou
 s\ninnovation in the software ecosystem over the past two decades.\nInspir
 ed by this success\, open-source hardware involves making the\nhigh-level 
 description of hardware components freely available for\nothers to study\,
  change\, distribute\, and ultimately use in fabricating\ntheir own hardwa
 re components. Unfortunately\, open-source hardware has\nhad a relatively 
 bleak history and has yet to offer the same kind of\ntransformative impact
  in the hardware ecosystem. At the same time\,\nemerging applications in v
 isual computing\, data science\, and machine\nlearning are demanding more 
 performance with less resources motivating\nan increasing need for acceler
 ator-centric system-on-chip (SoC)\ndesign. We need hardware startups to dr
 ive the next phase of\nsoftware/hardware innovation\, and hardware startup
 s need open-source\nhardware.\n\nIn this talk\, I will briefly discuss som
 e recent trends in open-source\nelectronic design automation\, instruction
  set design\, and component\ndevelopment that suggest we may be entering a
  new era of open-source\nSoC design. I will then describe two projects in 
 my own research group\nthat concretely illustrate these trends. In the fir
 st part of the\ntalk\, I will discuss PyMTL\, a new framework which levera
 ges Python to\ncreate a domain-specific embedded language for concurrent-s
 tructural\nmodeling and hardware design. PyMTL has the potential to improv
 e the\nproductivity and quality of open-source hardware design. In the sec
 ond\npart of this talk\, I will discuss the Celerity SoC\, a 5x5mm\n385M-t
 ransistor chip in TSMC 16nm designed and implemented by a team\nof student
 s and faculty from UC San Diego\, University of Michigan\, and\nCornell as
  part of the DARPA CRAFT program. The chip went from PDK\naccess to tapeou
 t in just nine months largely owing to extensive use\nof open-source hardw
 are. My talk concludes with a call-to-action for\nthe academic community t
 o make open-source hardware a centerpiece of\ntheir activities. Academics 
 have a practical and ethical motivation\nfor using\, developing\, and prom
 oting open-source electronic design\nautomation tools and open-source hard
 ware designs. We should be\nleaders in this new era of open-source system-
 on-chip design.
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 1\, Computer Laboratory
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR