EDIT: This post is not quite what it claims to be unfortunately because I was wrong about the Icesugar being open fabric. Still some interesting links though if I do say so myself.
Here’s a video with some cool graphics at the beginning from the infamous Chaos Computer Club, which is a German group that runs a conference with some talks in English. In this video they talk about “From Silicon to Sovereignty,” a concept that has been significant for me this year. The idea that there aren’t any processors that can run Linux and are open source is quite bad, and I have been following this area since about 2007 when I first discovered OpenCores and started trying to find the information to manufacture an entire computer from scratch in order to make sure it was available.
Here (above) is another video describing methods of lithography, this time focusing on technologies at Cannon.
In the video above you can learn most of the concepts you need to know in order to produce 2um masks and chips at home, matching chips that were possible in the 1980s, but not quite fast enough to run linux or the bulk of open source software yet unfortunately. Using this lithography machine it might be possible to make all the chips needed to run ContikiOS (a graphical OS with an ipv6 networking stack) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contiki#Microcontrollers.
Above is a video refering to the process of growing and shaving quartz into silicon wafers. The video describes the process used to make an oscellator which can be used as a clock.
https://github.com/FelipeFFerreira/ITA-CORES
https://github.com/skordal/potato
https://github.com/wuxx/icesugar-nano (update: not open source silicone)
https://bitlog.it/20220118_asic_roundup_of_open_source_riscv_cpu_cores.html
https://opencores.org/projects?expanded=System%20on%20Chip%2CProcessor
These are related to open-source processors (the ASIC files that I’ve just linked to were discovered when someone shared them with me today), the project was last updated last year. It apparently has all of the internals of a processor as an open source project; most open-source processors require certain instructions on the FPGA, which are closed source. This means they typically use closed-source FPGAs that rely on closed instructions in ARM processors in open source processor designs. It can run on a £20 open-source FPGA, so I might be able to test it out. ASIC design files are included. Notably the ITA-CORES project is a processor that can run on an open source FPGA. Check out Minsoc in the last link.
https://docs.hackerfab.org/hacker-fab-space
These are projects that might provide DIY Open source lithography nodes that can be used to manufacture the chips, but you might be able to follow the process from the “Speedrunning 30yrs of lithography technology” video. They are able to make chips at the 1um scale, so more is needed in order to manufacture the 180nm processors above in a soverign way.
https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF
https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF-wiphy
https://github.com/open-sdr/openwifi
Now that the processor has been completed, the only real obstacle to making a simple low-graphics desktop with this information is probably networking or Wi-Fi. There are some options for networking, potentially including a 10Gb Ethernet that is open source, but notably, there are some open-source Wi-Fi implementations as well. Unfortunately, these suffer from the same issue: they only run on (open) SDRs that use closed FPGAs with ARM processors. In theory, they can now be implemented on FPGAs featuring the RISC-V processor.
Here is an open-source SDR hardware, but none of the Wi-Fi stacks will apparently run on it yet. I still need to do more research on this because maybe they will, or maybe there is another stack that will support it.
Here are two examples of how to make potentially usable screens using raw liquid crystals made from a chemical product that can be extracted and purified from plants. They can be used to display the Linux terminal in theory.
This all means an entirely open-source 48MHz RISC-V computer that can run Linux with a screen and networking might be possible without closed FPGA components today.
Also, check this out if you haven’t seen it before: Another guy makes his own silicon chips at home. I think if he has the designs up 1,000 transistors, he would need 20 times as many to make the most minimal RISC-V ASIC (which would be the most significant step). But this is next level, and is not needed for the Open Source sovereignty to be practically complete because there are many different commercial ASIC producers.
Keeping track of everything needed to produce the entire supply chain, such as how to mine silicon and produce the equipment needed for manufacture, etc., is still a process, and it is still important.
This entirely open source 100mhz RISC-V processor suggests that a computer that can run linux is possible.