[Cryptech Tech] Alpha board strategy

[Joachim Strömbergson]

Aloha!

I see the tool cost not just as something our project may have to bear, but a barrier to entry. If we design the alpha board with FPGAs that requires several kUSD in tools, users that don't plan to build hundreds of boards will have a harder time.

And just to make it easier for others to replicate what we do in order to build trust or try to contribute the tool becomes a problem if the cost serious dough.

Imho.

> On 18 Feb 2015, at 12:27, Randy Bush <randy at psg.com> wrote:
> 
> a few things, not central.  i will leave the chip diuscussion for you,
> joachim, fredrik, and whoever.  i am digesting dinner and my brain will
> be oxygen starved until morning coffee.
> 
>  o how much is a dev license for the larger fpgas?  a second fpga costs
>    O($300) and is amortized on every board.  a dev license will only be
>    needed for boards where folk want to hack verilog; swag one in ten.
>    i.e. we should run the numbers in this tradeoff space.
> 
>  o can you and joachim and maybe paul package up the eim arbiter as a
>    contribution to the novena project so we can give back before we ask
>    for more?
> 
>  o the soc/cpu code is being done by paul and rob.  they are capable of
>    speaking for themselves (when they wake and dig out of the boston
>    snow).  but my guess is the bigger chunk of soc dependency is the
>    library environment.  unless the compiler is really weak.  my guess
>    is they would be unhappy if gcc did not support the chip.
> 
>  o i doubt anybody here is in love with the full range of household
>    appliances on the arm chips.
> 
> randy
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