The Economics of Chip Production

Welcome back, Matt Venn of the Zero to Asic Course and Tiny Tapeout!

(Due to illness and some life stuff happening, my recording setup was crap. Apologies. I also leaned heavily on Matt’s notes, so some of the following links will be out of order. Think of it like an ad hoc scavenger hunt…fun!)

• Matt was last on the show on episode 616, about 18 months ago
• Tiny Tapeout has continued, now working on it’s 8th run. the 5th run is shipping soon.
• Uri Shaked made Wokwi compatible with making chip designs and then compiling them to verilog for later processing by open source tools
• 12 bit SAR ADC on TT07
• linux capable riscv
• Analog ASIC design with digital standard cells!
• We had previously posted Matt’s review of 2023 and aims for 2024 
• Siliwiz
• ASIC inside synchrotron 
• Touring IHP (Germany) facilities
• Interview with Nordic Semi designer
• People are building analog structures on Tiny Tapeout
• There’s a new course on Zero to Asic that will be about Analog (sign up for the waitlist)
• There are some new tools being developed
  • surfer  – browser based waveform
  • moosic – logic locking plugin for yosys
  • eqy – formal equivalence checking
• Matt will be doing a TT workshop at supercon 2024
• TT08 will have a demoscene competition – VGA and sound output – what’s the coolest thing you can fit in 1 tile? You have until Sept 6th 2024 to submit!
• Not discussed, but on the list and interesting!
  • Silicon Supply Chains with Ed Conway
  • An early analog design (temp sensor) on TT03
  • Get TT quality stickers