[Libre-soc-bugs] [Bug 194] A nmigen-based RISC-V Formal correctness proof suite is needed

[bugzilla-daemon at libre-soc.org]

https://bugs.libre-soc.org/show_bug.cgi?id=194

--- Comment #1 from Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> ---
the decision not to do RISCV was long after the MoU was signed.  at the time it
was signed we were still sending in-good faith requests to resolve conflicts of
interest with our transparency and funding obligations to NLnet.

the RISCV Foundation repeatedly failed under Trademark Law requirements to
respond to in-good faith responsible requests to allow participation in the
augmentation of the RISCV ISA, without compromising our obligations to NLnet.

individuals not acting on behalf of the RISCV Foundation but with close ties to
the Founders and the RISCV Board of Directors repeatedly disregarded our
rationale that "Custom Extensions" for something as high profile as a hybrid 3D
GPU which requires upstreaming of all software components is clearly not
appropriate (Custom RISCV Extensions are prohibited from upstreaming and must
remain privately maintained: clearly this conflicts with high profile public 3D
GPU APIs and drivers developed as "Works for the Public Good").  these
individuals' unthinking responses, publicly visible and clearly accessible and
readable by Members of the RISCV Foundation Board of Directors, actively
interfered with our efforts to resolve the conflicts.

To proceed without being included in the process that was available to all
other RISCV participants (once they had signed an agreement containing secrecy
clauses that conflict with our obligations to NLnet) would have been
irresponsible.
The repeated failures to respond left us discriminated against under Trademark
Law, yet unless we were included we could not begin the process of proposing
our augmentations to the RISCV ISA needed to support the creation of a Hybrid
3D CPU/GPU/VPU, because access to even the documentation on how to begin that
process was shrouded in secrecy and required signing an agreement that
contained conflicts of interest.

All of this was explained reasonably, in good faith, multiple times.

Not once in 18 months did we receive a response.

The RISCV Foundation repeated systematic failures to respond, in direct
violation of Trademark Law obligations to act in a FRAND manner regarding our
enquiries even as to how we may proceed to resolve these conflicts left us no
choice but to abandon 18+ months work, much of it funded by NLnet and the
underlying EU Horizon 2020 Grant, and some of it personally funded.

We have no choice but to close this bugreport as invalid.

-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.