Dear community,
Let’s just say I’m a country that wants to create my own CPU only using knowledge/tech/techniques that are in the open and nothing proprietary. When I said CPU, let’s just say something that can run a C program, and eventually the linux kernel.
Is creating one out of publicly accessed knowledge and resources even possible, and how minuscule the tolerance need to be? Is there even a successful open CPU project out there?
I’m asking this because of an anxiety that I have when knowing only several companies in the world know how to create a CPU.
this guy was able to make a silicon chip with 1200 transistors on it in a garage, far from a modern CPU, but spitting distance from the 3500 transistors of the intel 8008 CPU. Projects in flight also has a series working on DIY semi conductor fabrication he’s not quite to the stage of fabricating a full chip, but he’s covered a lot of the more difficult parts already. And this is all stuff being done as hobby projects.
Something like an early pentium chip like the P5 would not be a particularly difficult task for a well resourced team. The questions are how much could they rely on the currently available off the shelf supplies and tools and how much do they need to scale production.
thank you, now we just need to funds these people so they can work at it with more than a duct tape and a litre of coffee.