In order to successfully achieve the goals of the SwissChips project, we intend to linking Swiss IC design support activities under one banner. This includes supporting SwissChips partners as well as other Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences with their tape-outs, sharing know-how, making use and fostering open-source approaches for IC design, preparing tutorials for IC design topics, helping each other with EDA design flows, working together to have access to state-of-the-art IC manufacturing technologies, discussing solutions with technology and EDA tool vendors for SwissChips, and investigating possibilities for a shared design platform within Switzerland. Existing institutions within each partner will form a technical network in order to closely collaborate on finding solutions for all SwissChips partners.
In practice, the EPFL EDA team will support the EPFL and the SwissChips project participants with the following contributions : - Building libraries of IPs and fostering the reusability of circuit blocks that can be used within EPFL, but also across the project participants. Support the utilization of open source hardware IPs within EPFL and across the SwissChips participants
- Support EPFL laboratories with enabling access to advanced technologies and state of the art EDA tools. Collaborate with ETHZ and CSEM to setup multiparty NDAs and agreement with technology and EDA providers in order to ease the sharing of IPs and the design of chips involving several institutions.
- Support EPFL laboratories by interfacing with EPFL central IT and providing a reliable design platform. Evaluate with the other participants of SwissChips, solutions for defining common guidelines for their design platforms in order to make them compatible. Evaluation of the requirements of a common design platforms for swiss universities designing ICs.
- Support EPFL and SwissChips participants for packaging and test methodologies.
- Provide design reviews, best practice, on-matter support, documentation training material on design techniques and methologies to EPFL and SwissChips participants.
- Participate in the organization of a SwissChips summer school in 2025.
- Communicate around the SwissChips activities through the buildup of a chip gallery and social media presence.
- Help and guide SwissChips participants navigate issues around moving a project designed using academic licensing to the commercial world when needed.
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