Google is moving forward by providing open source silicon manufacturing at no cost from GlobalFoundries

Google announced its silicon manufacturing funding for open source sharing projects using a process design group with GlobalFoundries.

as part of Google’s efforts to allow open source projects easier access to silicon design and chip manufacturingThey unlocked resources and covered costs for open source projects to manufacture their early chips in the SkyWater 130nm process that followed Upgrade to SkyWater’s 90nm process. Back in August it was announced Google and GlobalFoundries Create an Open Source Process Design Kit (PDK) To target the GloFo 180nm technology platform “180MCU”.

During the original announcement, it was implied that Google would continue to offer a “no-cost silicon realization program” to cover the initial batches of chip manufacturing for those who complete a successful open source chip design. With the SkyWater program, Google covered the costs of six shuttle trips that allowed 350 unique designs to be achieved in silicon and about 240 of them were successfully manufactured.

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Google has now officially announced its funding for open source silicon manufacturing using the GlobalFoundries 180nm PDK. There will be a series of no-cost shuttles with the GF180MCU over the coming months. As with previous runs, silicon designs must be fully open source, must be replicable from source designs, must be submitted within established timelines, and must pass pre-fabrication testing. Although 180nm is not very interesting for leading PC components, 180nm still has a lot of real-world applications, and is used in a variety of fields such as the Internet of Things, automobiles, and other basic electronics.

180nm CPU manufacturing was used during the days of some Intel Celeron Socket 478 CPUs (pictured) as well as AMD Athlon Thunderbird, Duron, and others. GlobalFoundries’ 180nm fabrication is still useful for other ASICs – especially for start-up open source projects where Google covers costs.

The first test shuttle is now running until December 5 for applications. Those who want to know more can see it This post is on Google Blog From an open source blog with This Shuttle Sponsorship that was announced on October 31st but only appears in their RSS feed this weekend.