[Libre-soc-dev] HELP

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Thursday, August 22, 2024, Cesar Strauss via Libre-soc-dev <
libre-soc-dev at lists.libre-soc.org> wrote:
> Dear Luke,
>
> I came across this wiki page: https://libre-soc.org/crypto_router_asic/
>
> 1) Given that the goals of the Cryptorouter project have shifted with
time, due to more accurate estimates of time and needed funds, do you think
that page correctly summarize the final goals and delivered work?

no, it was a very early page, it dates back to 2019 i think,
got evolved from the 180nm asic work, then to NGI POINTER
(where Chipflow got involved and disrupted the relationship
with Verhaegen), long story.

> 2) I wrote:
>>>
>>> Would it be correct to say that the main deliverable of the
>>> Cryptorouter grant was a set of instructions suitable for crypto
>>> applications, with their documentation, usage examples, and a
>>> reference HDL implementation of them?
>
> You answered:
>>
>> basically yes. more to demonstrate the huge efficiency gains.
>
> Would be logical to fix the above wiki page, by stating this at the top?

yes.  also mention litex abuse, shift to ls2, but importantly
REMAP engine in HDL, plus elwidth overrides needed, were
far too much to do with small budget.

shifted instead to ISACaller, designed REMAP in simulator,
added bitmanip and bigint to simulator, and micro-focussed
on inner loops of key parts of algorithms, or in some cases
got the entire loops (chacha20) into SimpleV-PowerISA
assembler.


> 3) I wrote:
>>>
>>> Is there a place in the wiki which gathers documentation and
>>> examples for the crypto instructions?
>
> You answered:
>>
>> no, they are all under each individual bugreport.
>
> Would it be reasonable for the above wiki page to point to those bug
reports, git commits and other wiki pages related to the Cryptorouter
project?

of course

>
> 4) Do you think the above wiki page points to helpful links about how
someone could take our code and documentation, and build a Cryptorouter
ASIC for oneself?

no because an entire new grant is needed to cover the
REMAP engine and elwidth overrides in HDL, and implementing
the scalar instructions in HDL as well.

they also would need to take into account that the litex
team are abusive.

> 5) Could the job of updating the above wiki page be done by one or more
team members, besides yourself?

of course

> 6) Should we ask NLNet for an extension of at least a couple of weeks, to
be able to complete the above work, given that some team members have daily
jobs and can only work on evenings and weekends?

and to ask them to stop being abusive to me, yes.

i have had to call up medical services yet again as i have
all the symptoms of having had another stroke, caused by
the distress of them not listening.


-- 
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