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One way to dethrone the competition might be to focus on openness: There are also security reasons for wanting to make a processor for India. “We don’t know re
by sillysaurus3 9y ago
One way to dethrone the competition might be to focus on openness:
There are also security reasons for wanting to make a processor for India. “We don’t know really whether the processor we are getting from outside is trustworthy. Is it secure?” asks Kamakoti. “Suppose I want variants of a processor, for different needs – not just strategic, even civilian needs – I have to basically rely on the processor available to me, and fit my application to that. It is something like I bought the slipper and I am cutting my feet to fit into it.”
- 0xbear 9y agoBut in the case of ARM, you _do_ know, if you manufacture it yourself. ARM licenses intellectual property, not sells chips. Once you buy a license, you can inspect it and make sure it doesn’t have the bits you don’t like.
- gsmadhusudan 9y agoThat means I have to develop all the code from scratch anyway. the arch lic just gets me a ISA spec doc.Might as well start with another ISA that is free. But the issue is bigger. Shakti is also an exercise in using a high level HDL. We would not exist but for Bluespec, we really get a 6x to 10x productivity increase over Verilog. I also get the ability to do true formal proving of the correctness of my code. There is a reason why DARPA hose bluespec for their secure processor work.
- TickleSteve 9y agoNo, an ARM license gets you the implementation of a core in source form. You are free to modify it if needed, as many licensees do.
- monocasa 9y agoDepends on the license.
- retailbuyout 9y agoMy understanding is that you also need to license from intel if you have a chip.