[Cryptech Core] conversation with bitsim

[Peter Stuge]

Fredrik Thulin wrote:
> Pavel, Joachim and I think we can actually make the schematics for
> the Alpha ourselves, after the move to the ARM M4.

I think so too. It's not rocket science. I'll review if you commit PDFs.


> Pavel made the suggestion that once we have that board, he can add
> an Artix-7 FPGA (with required power etc.) to the schematics

I think that's a good plan. Just be careful with the license of any
existing designs that you and Pavel derive from.


> and then we can get a PCB layout made from these schematics.

Yep.


> I think we should make sure to keep a good relationship with Bitsim
> for the future, but if we choose to make an attempt at making the
> schematics ourselves I do not think we need a better estimate from
> them at this time.

I think it's a good move to do the schematic inhouse.

I will again urge the project to take this as a good opportunity to
ensure design control and reusability and enable more contributions
by using an open source EDA tool for the layout. Whether that tool
is gEDA or KiCAD doesn't matter.


Joachim Strömbergson wrote:
> For me, the big question becomes who will then do the layout

Would BMOcon perhaps be interested in offering a CM4 layout?

They estimated 160h for iMX6, that should shrink quite a bit for CM4.


//Peter