Free Silicon Foundation @fsi@mastodon.f-si.org

#FSiC videos are available on PeerTube(https://peertube.f-si.org)!

Watch David Bol presenting a critical view on technology (https://peertube.f-si.org/videos/watch/73680ce5-dd9e-483c-b6dd-88abcda548c4) and recent developments on #Yosys (https://peertube.f-si.org/videos/watch/b6ccf0de-06c3-42d3-897a-1e81cbe04ac1)

#openHardware #Chips #IntegratedCircuits #semiconductor #silicon #GoIT #sustainability

@pyropeter Currently not, but within the GoIT project (goit-project.eu) our partners will build a repository for open-source EDA tools and hardware cores which include open layouts. See FSiC2023 for a first contribution of this type.

A RISC-V chip with with secret RTL (not to mention the layout) does not qualify as open-hardware. Otherwise MS Word would be open-source software just because it implements the Open Document Format (ODF).

#openHardware #Chips #IntegratedCircuits #semiconductor #silicon #GoIT

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (#BMBF) is announcing funding opportunities for open-source EDA development (careful: text in formal German only!):
https://www.elektronikforschung.de/foerderung/bekanntmachungen/design

#openHardware #Chips #IntegratedCircuits #semiconductor #silicon #FSiC #GoIT

28 speakers at FSiC so far, and new submissions still coming in!

Check the current list of talks at:

https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/FSiC2023

#openHardware #Chips #IntegratedCircuits #semiconductor #silicon #FSiC #GoIT

We are glad to announce the next edition of the Free Silicon Conference (#FSiC) which will be held in Paris on July 10,11,12 2023.

The tentative program is:
https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/FSiC2023

Please help us spreading the voice, and please propose or suggest ideas by answering this toot or by writing at fsic2023'at'f-si.org.

#openHardware #Chips #IntegratedCircuits #semiconductor #silicon #FSiC #GoIT

The EU proposal we submitted in October last year HAS BEEN ACCEPTED!!

It is a "Coordination and Support Action" for open-source chip development.

The full text of the submitted version can be downloaded at:
https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/Horizon_2021_Coordination_and_Support_Action_(CSA)_proposal

The project begins today.

During the "Grant Agreement" preparation some significant modifications were requested. In particular, F-Si is no longer the coordinator, but EDI in Latvia.

#GoIT

The Free Silicon Conference 2022 is over and most videos are available on:
https:peertube.f-si.org

Watch the keynote speech by Frank Karlitschek founder of #Nextcloud
"Why Open Hardware and Open Software are necessary for our future":
https://peertube.f-si.org/videos/watch/89a2e2d7-537f-443e-8996-eae6daace5c6

@Karlitschek thanks again for your contribution!

The next Free Silicon Conference will be held in Paris on July 7,8,9 2022 (COVID permitting) and we need your help to reach out to new people!

We want to bring together followers of the free/libre #silicon chip idea, people who love sharing experience, code and tools.

Is there any name/entity you would like to see or to meet? If so, please drop us a note.

If your idea is not listed yet on https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/FSiC2019 you should definitely let us know!

#FSiC2022

We have submitted a proposal for a European call entitled "Coordination and Support Action (CSA) for Open Source Hardware for ultra-low-power, secure microprocessors":

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl4-2021-digital-emerging-01-05

Our proposal can be downloaded at:
https://wiki.f-si.org/index.php/Horizon_2021_Coordination_and_Support_Action_(CSA)_proposal

We feel that sufficiently new ideas have been generated for justifying the publication. This will further increase the #transparency of the selection process.

If you have any comments please leave them below.

#EUBudget
#HorizonEurope

The #Pegasus affair shows that complex systems have backdoors that can be turned against everyone by malicious interests. This could affect hardware too.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/20/pegasus-project-sparks-
clamour-for-investigations-into-use-of-nso-spyware

The general discussion should nevertheless not drift away from the question about the (il-)legitimacy of such companies/government
actions.

An article in German entitled "Consequences of the US boycott: China builds up its own EDA industry "

https://www.elektronikpraxis.vogel.de/folgen-des-us-boykotts-china-baut-eigene-eda-industrie-auf-a-1033237

By-the-way, the problem with EDA access touches Europe as well, and Free and Open Source is an alternative too.

Next week, Thursday May 18, follow the online session on the future of European open hardware, hosted by the Next Generation Internet (NGI)
Forum:

https://nlnet.nl/news/2021/20210507-NGI-Zero-workshop-open-hardware.html

Streaming is via BigBlueButton and does not require registration.

"#AMD #processors from 2011 to 2019 vulnerable to two new attacks"

https://www.zdnet.com/article/amd-processors-from-2011-to-2019-vulnerable-to-two-new-attacks/

"With Collide+Probe, an attacker can monitor a victim’s memory accesses without knowledge of physical addresses or shared memory when time-sharing a logical core. With Load+Reload, we exploit the way predictor to obtain highly-accurate memory-access traces of victims on the same physical #core."

https://mlq.me/download/takeaway.pdf

@dredmorbius

Quoting https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/geheimdienst-affaere-weltweite-spionage-operation-mit-schweizer-firma-aufgedeckt :

* According to research, the operation ran until at least 2018 ("Die Operation lief gemäss Recherchen bis mindestens 2018")

#CryptoAG

@dredmorbius

Quoting the Washington Post:

* "Crypto’s shift to **electronic** products [..]. Foreign governments clamored for systems that seemed clearly superior to the old clunky mechanical devices but in fact were **easier** for U.S. spies to read."

* "a **circuit-based** system could be made to appear that it was producing endless streams of randomly generated characters, while in reality it would repeat itself at short enough intervals for #NSA experts [..] to **crack** the pattern."

"The intelligence coup of the century"

For decades, the #CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries exploiting backdoors in silicon chips.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/

Free and open-source silicon will allow everybody to audit the full chip design, from netlists down to layout.

Keep up #Freedom with Free silicon!

#CryptoAG #Backdoor

The Free Silicon Foundation adopts a different funding model than #FOSDEM and promotes independence.

We think that certain sponsorships are problematic not only because of an evident conflict of interest (e.g. #GAFAM vs #freedom), but also because they induce some people and/or organizations like our not to attend #FOSDEM, therefore impacting, among others, the plurality of views on topics which can be as delicate as licences (https://2020.copyleftconf.org).

@aral @xerz

We did not suspect that Google is since 2013 not only **a** sponsor, but **the main** sponsor, of the Free Software Foundation Europe @fsfe :
https://fsfe.org/donate/thankgnus-2013.en.html . Thanks for the hint!

This is like if ExxonMobil was financing Greenpeace.

Just like for the SFC @conservancy above, we removed the #FSFE from the white paper.

#GAFAM
#SurveillanceCapitalism