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MPW-7
Open MPW Shuttle Service

Welcome to the Efabless Open MPW Shuttle Program

MPW-7 is the seventh Open MPW Shuttle providing fabrication for fully open-source projects using the Open PDK announced by Google.

The shuttle provides opportunities for designers to experiment and push the state-of-the-art without having to reconcile the risk associated with the cost of fabrication.

The shuttle program is open to anyone, provided that their project is fully open source and meets the other program requirements. Costs for fabrication, packaging, evaluation boards and shipping are covered by Google for this program.

Project Submission Requirements

The following project requirements must be met in order to qualify for inclusion on the shuttle program:

  • The project must be targeted on the currently-supported Open PDK.
  • The project must be posted on a git-compatible repo and be publicly accessible.
  • The top-level of the project must include a LICENSE file for an approved open-source license agreement. Third-party source code must be identified and source code must contain proper headers. See details here.
  • The repo must include project documentation and adhere to Google's inclusive language guidelines. See details here.
  • The project must be fully open. The project must contain a GDSII layout, which must be reproducible from source contained in the project.
  • Projects must use a common test harness and padframe based on the Caravel repo. New projects should start by duplicating or forking the Caravel User Project repo and implementing their project using the user_project_wrapper. The Caravel repo is configured as a submodule in the project under the ‘caravel’ directory. Note -- you do not need to initialize nor clone the Caravel sub-directory to complete or submit your project. See the project README for further instructions. The projects must be implemented within the user space of the layout and meet all requirements for the Caravel.
  • Projects must successfully pass the Open MPW precheck tool, including LVS and DRC clean using the referenced versions of OpenLane flow. Projects should implement and pass a simulation testbench for their design integrated into Caravel. The Caravel User Project provides an example of how to implement this.

Schedule

  • July 08, 2022: Project submission is OPEN
  • December 05, 2022: Project submission is CLOSED at 23:59 PT
  • December 30, 2022: Wafer fabrication complete, packaging and assembly begins
  • July 01, 2023: Parts and assembled boards shipped to project owners

FAQs

  • See the following page

Timeline

Tapeout: Dec 05, 2022 at 11:59 PT
Delivery: Jul 2023

Status

Closed
on Dec 05, 2022 at 11:59 PT

Process

SKY130A
Skywater 130nm

Participants

88
+ 38 New Users

Projects

106
38 from new users

Capacity

106 / 40
265.0 % Oversubscribed
1
submission
2
tapeout
3
fabrication
4
close
Open
Jul 08, 2022
Tapeout
Dec 05, 2022
Assembly
Dec 30, 2022
Delivery
Jul 01, 2023
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Update #1
Jeff DiCorpo | Efabless | Sep 11, 2022

Reminder -- Submission Deadline Monday, September 12th

Deadline for MPW-7 is this Monday, September 12th

Just a reminder that the deadline for MPW-7 is this Monday, September 12th at 11:59pm pacific daylight time.

 

Updated Submission Process

An update has been rolled out to the platform that simplifies the shuttle submission process.  The ‘Request’ page has gone away.  Everything can now be done from the project detail view.  In addition to completing a successful tapeout, you need to provide a shipping address by editing the project using the green icon shown below and then selecting the address tab on the left of the page.  You can select a previous provided address or submit a new one.

You also need to accept the terms of service and complete the export agreement and attach it to the chat tab on the project.

           

Once you’ve completed the tapeout and provided the shipping address, the button to submit the project to the shuttle should be enabled.   Select this to submit your project before the deadline.

Note — your project will show Acceptance as Pending until your project is reviewed after the deadline.

Update #2
Jeff DiCorpo | Efabless | Nov 19, 2022

MPW-7 Project Resubmission Due December 5th

Hello everyone,

We are happy to finally announce readiness to resubmit MPW-7 projects.  We are asking all project owners who met the original submission deadline to resubmit their projects on the Efabless platform for MPW-7 by December 5th at 11:59 PST.

PROJECT RESUBMISSION

As part of resubmission, please complete the following steps:

  1. Update your project to include verilog/rtl/user_defines.v .  

    • Within this file, you will need to specify the power-on default configuration for each GPIO pad for your project

    • The configuration determines whether the pad is connected to the user or management area, digital vs analog, input vs output, and pull-up or pull-down resistors for inputs.

    • Please see the Section - GPIO Configuration 4 of the Caravel User Project documentation for further information.

    • You can find a copy of user_defines.v here.  You need to modify the configuration for each IO based on your project’s IO usage.

  1. Run chip-level static timing analysis for your project integrated in updated Caravel design.

    • Post-layout static timing analysis has been updated to catch the timing violations seen in MPW-2 silicon.   

    • A new script has been created to run the updated timing analysis flow

    • Please see the documentation for how to run timing on existing projects ( or Step 4 of the Quickstart documentation for new projects ).

    • A summary of timing results is provided at the end of the flow. 

    • If you identify a timing issue with your design - please post your issue on the Slack channel #timing-closure and we will provide guidance on options to address timing issues with Openlane.

  1. Rerun mpw_precheck and tapeout on the Efabless platform for your MPW-7 project.

    • mpw_precheck includes an additional check to verify that user_defines.v has been properly provided for your project.

    • tapeout will include the updated Caravel design correcting issues found with MPW-2 silicon testing.

PROJECT SELECTION

Projects that complete resubmission by the deadline will be selected based using the lottery process based on their original submission date.

Thank you again for your continued patience, encouragement and support for this program.

 

-- The Efabless Team

Update #3
Jeff DiCorpo | Efabless | Dec 21, 2022

MPW-7 Successful Tapeouts!

Congratulations on MPW-7 !!!

There were 108 projects and over 73 successful tapeouts. Qualifying projects have been selected using a lottery process. The projects were selected from those that successfully resubmitted their projects to include user_defines.v as well as address any timing issues. Projects selected for the shuttle have been marked on the Efabless platform as ‘Accepted’ on the Shuttle Management page. The next shuttle, MPW-8 is open and ready for those who were not selected on the previous shuttles. Stay tuned for further announcements! Please let us know if you have any questions.

Project submission deadline has passed