> and in particular were not forced to use OpenLane and were not limited to 48 pins controlled by a "Management Engine".
That's because they used TSMC, not SkyWater.
I think you're deliberately creating confusion here.
Also, as the webpage states, they signed TSMC's NDA:
> LIP6 were able to create the GDS-II tape-out under NDA
Sure, if you sign the NDAs, you can use whatever toolflow you want.
Look, I don't mean to in any way denigrate your techinical achievement here, and I have no beef with your project. But the absence of no-NDA foundry access is a huge, massive obstacle to a truly public and free open-source ecosystem, and lately there have been a lot of people and organizations papering over that problem and bamboozling software folk who aren't aware of the issue and its details. Hiding the problem isn't going to get it fixed.
That's because they used TSMC, not SkyWater.
I think you're deliberately creating confusion here.
Also, as the webpage states, they signed TSMC's NDA:
> LIP6 were able to create the GDS-II tape-out under NDA
Sure, if you sign the NDAs, you can use whatever toolflow you want.
Look, I don't mean to in any way denigrate your techinical achievement here, and I have no beef with your project. But the absence of no-NDA foundry access is a huge, massive obstacle to a truly public and free open-source ecosystem, and lately there have been a lot of people and organizations papering over that problem and bamboozling software folk who aren't aware of the issue and its details. Hiding the problem isn't going to get it fixed.