An update at Power11 hits the market this month prompts Quote:

Quote:

I once heard testing a CPU is like building software, but you are only allowed to compile once every 3 months and it costs a $1 million each time. That was a LONG time ago and costs have gone up exponentially since then.

Testing a new CPU now is horrifically expensive.

You need to build a model first to test how well it's going to work. An emulator basically, probably just testing the logic at first then moving to a cycle accurate model.

Then you need to design it, and make sure it matches the model. You'll need to simulate it. By that I mean you have to have a cycle accurate model of all the gates, busses clocks etc.
That requires an immense level of computing power, it typically requires a supercomputer. Even then it's simulating at thousands to millions of times slower than the real thing.

Once you know it (mostly) works you can turn it into a bitfile and put it into FPGAs. You need top end FPGAs and lots of them in a system designed for this. These things are probably in the millions these days but they only run hundreds of time slower than the real thing.

Ultimately, the real test is to build a test chip. On the latest processes that's $50s million.

Update:

>> S1 by a chip design company called Solid Silicon

> S1 no longer mentioned on the website. What gives?

Solid Silicon's OpenPOWER membership "cancelled: 2024-08-31" (with "2024" probably being a typo).

Addendum:

>> Oh my... just the kind of news one would expect and is
>> accustomed to in the Amiga scene. :-D

> It doesn't get better:
> https://www.phoronix.com/news/Libre-SoC-NLNet-Funding-Lost

https://news.tuxmachines.org/n/2025/10/25/Libre_Hardware_Founder_s_Project_Sabotaged.shtml
https://ninazeng.substack.com/p/libre-hardware-founders-project-sabotaged (full article with objection as comment)

"MIROSHNIKOV was tasked with liasing with me in sep 23 to make carefully-crafted modifications to the Financial Audit Records of the libre-soc project. instead within ninety minutes he sabotaged the financial records, did not inform me, and i was forced to call an emergency freeze and audit, a day later on discovering the sabotage. in the meantime, BHARVANI had been caught embezzling EUR 35,000 from the NGI POINTER Programme. he had not done the work, had not purchased the asset required, and was fighting tooth and nail to claim otherwise. when hard evidence of his fraudulent activity was presented he became vengeful and aggressive, and when i called an emergency audit and requested that everyone help with the audit he instead illegally called a meeting attempting to seize control of the libre-soc project, its resources, its finances and its operation. [...] the illegal meeting progressed, [...] attended by LEWIS CALDERWOOD MIROSHNIKOV and MARGARITIS. they "voted" not realising that the project operates on unanimous decision making. [...] MARGARITIS in the meantime had received a contract as an employee of ARM and was doing sub-standard work for NGI Search as a result. [...] during a meeting [...] we had it confirmed that MARGARITIS and BHARVANI were attempting to seize control of the NGI Search Grant, not realising that it was a contract not a Memorandum of Understanding. it was very clear that they intended to "divvy up" the EUR 150,000 grant between themselves, and a very pissed-off Mirko had to bluntly disabuse them of this additional fraudulent attempt at embezzlement of EU Funds. in addition [...]: MARGARITIS was attempting to steal patentable material jointly owned by himself, myself, and JACOB LIFSHAY. he was not in any happy that i stood firmly in the way of this effort at blatant technology theft. [...] CALDERWOOD wilfully and intentionally mis-represented the facts [...] in order to bolster his case of fraudulently stealing both RED Semiconductor Ltd and [...] Simple-V, through aliasing to VISC. that [...] is Weapons-Grade Military Supercomputing Technology, intended to be hidden in plain sight as COTS products. it can be used to make Hypersonic missiles more reliable, aid criminals and foreign powers to enhance AI fraud - all of which constitutes a direct threat to the security of the United Kingdom, the EU and its allies given that CALDERWOOD and LEWIS are attempting to sell my stolen technology to the highest bidder. [...] CALDERWOOD [...] will stop at nothing to get what he wants: control of my Weapons-Grade technology and to sell it to the highest bidder."
https://lists.libre-soc.org/pipermail/libre-soc-dev/2025-November/007022.html

"i in my capacity as a RED Semiconductor Ltd Director completed the documentation associated with the hardware acceleration achieved by my Weapons-Grade Military Supercomputing capable [...] technology, Simple-V [...]
that money, issued by the European Union, funded RED Semiconductor Ltd in their fraudulent efforts to claim ownership of my technology, presenting themselves as the Licensee of my technology that in the field of cryptography could speed up algorithms by a factor of 100. [...] this is why my Trademarked Technology, Simple-V, is so powerful. the power consumption reduction is immense, and the simplicity
of the resultant algorithms means that they are more easily verifiable as secure. the benefits to the United Kingdom's defense should be blindingly obvious, and that that security is threatened by CALDERWOOD and LEWIS's theft just as equally obvious. this was all supposed to be "hidden in plain sight" as affordable mass-volume COTS products so that the capability was easily available to the United Kingdom and its Allies without its enemies suspecting anything or being able to get their hands on comparative technology. that capability is now not only jeapordised, but available on the open market to the highest bidder, thanks to CALDERWOOD and LEWIS's blatant and criminal fraud and theft."
https://lists.libre-soc.org/pipermail/libre-soc-dev/2025-November/007024.html


Edit: added quotes

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf 03.11.2025 - 09:22 ]