Might as well just link directly to the blog post: <a href="https://essenceia.github.io/projects/blake2s_hashing_accelerator_a_solo_tapeout_journey/" rel="nofollow">https://essenceia.github.io/projects/blake2s_hashing_acceler...</a>
I know he jokes that running a marathon is theoretically possible with running shoes, it really isn't too hard though with programs like Couch to 5km <a href="https://c25k.com/" rel="nofollow">https://c25k.com/</a>. Multiple members of family have run marathons from as little as 6 months from nothing.
This is very interesting, for someone not involved in doing chip design, it's very interesting to get an idea of the open source landscape. Very exiting. I like the idea of consolidating some power electronics and logic into a single chip at some point, for example a BLDC driver with embedded MOSFETs, gate drivers and MCU. But this is a pipe dream for now. But I know it's possible.<p>I already see single-chip battery chargers (admittedly a lot simpler) that do both the charging logic (constant current until setpoint, then constant voltage until current drops below configured threshold).<p>A lot of stuff could be consolidated into single chips, making PCBs smaller and simplyfing designs.
See also Luke Wren's Mastodon thread on taping out a RISC-V chip in two weeks: <a href="https://types.pl/@wren6991/115572086565318699" rel="nofollow">https://types.pl/@wren6991/115572086565318699</a>
It is a bit misleading to say 'Solo', when TinyTapeout is involved.<p>Still clearly effortful work, though. I don't want to disparage it.
RP2040 is not new. A bit odd to say it is. I then thought maybe this was from a few years ago, but it's not, so idk
Very cool but I stopped reading when I realized that the blog post was written by an LLM.<p>> These weren’t just inconveniences; they fundamentally shaped the architecture, capping performance more than any internal logic constraints.<p>This sentence sealed the deal for me but I was already suspicious for the preceeding sections.
I keep subconsciously dismissing TinyTapeout because the time horizon is so long and I don't have a cool project idea that requires an ASIC, but it's probably a really good idea to do uncool things that don't require ASICs, to become familiar with the process and be able to do cool things later eventually. (Libre Hardware phone, anyone?)