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Chips4Makers Pilot: Retro-uC
Chips want to be free
Chips want to be free
The technical stuff seems to finally converge to a phase that launching of the Retro-uC campaign is getting close. In the current state four product options are planned: a chip, a breadboardable board, a prototyping board and a stand-alone board with Arduino MEGA IO layout.
The details are given in my latest blog post. All feedback and suggestions for improvement are welcome here. Do realise I may only be able to reply when I'm back from FOSDEM next weekend.
Inspired by the vibe I felt at the 34C3 conference I wrote my third part of the buzzwords article.
I really hope to be able to report more technical things in the short term but I am focusing currently on getting the production flow ready and discussions are going slow. Some changes should pup op on the gitlab repository in the coming days/weeks.
In my second part of the buzzwords article for this project I am discussing crowdfunding and why I think it is an important piece of the puzzle for low-volume open silicon.
It's also mentioned in the article that currently I am busy discussing the cost and the flow of the production run before officially launching the campaign. When this is finished I will be able to share more public information.
The Retro-uC project was mentioned in a blog post on hackster.io.
In order to provide some more background on the reason of existence of the Chips4Makers project I started writing some blog posts. Guided by some often used buzzwords I discuss my motivations for the project. In a first part I tackle the importance of Open Source.
The videos of ORConf 2017 have been posted. The Chips4Makers video is part of them. Don't hesitate to let your ideas, remarks, etc. be known.
My RFC: Is open source from Venus and commercial from Mars talk provides more background on my reasons for doing this project.
In the background progress is made which should results in more posts with details RSN (Real Soon Now).
The goals and plans for the Chips4Makers project were presented at ORConf 2017 (slides). The first version of the source containing a Z80 and JTAG interface for the XLR8 Arduino-compatible FPGA board was released on gitlab.
You are aware that there are 65C02 and Z80 based processors and microcontrollers still in production?
I was aware of the WDC parts and assumed there would also be Z80 uCs. But mine will be open source and it should be possible for people to in the future base their own MCU or even full computers chips on them.
I've written a blog post on the background for going open course:
https://chips4makers.io/blog/the-buzzword-article-part-1-open-source.html
The mass produced parts will always be cheaper so if they fulfill your needs, that's also fine.
Staf Verhaegen
Alper
Paul Bruno
Joshua Elsdon
Fantastic presentation at FOSDEM!