Second chip manufactured by JMU
03.02.2025Despite the complexity and high costs of chip design, it is essential to offer students the opportunity to gain practical experience early on in order to combat the shortage of skilled workers in this industry. The community initiative "Tiny Tapeout" provides bachelor students with a cost-effective opportunity to bring their own designs onto a chip. The Computer Engineering group, led by Prof. Dr. Matthias Jung, has successfully developed a chip for the second time.
The chip contains a compact 32-bit RISC-V CPU based on the reduced TinyRV1 instruction set from Cornell University, which has already been successfully used in teaching at JMU. The chip was developed using 130-nm technology, with a target clock rate of 12 MHz. Initial tests confirm the functionality of the design. Due to its simplicity, this chip is ideal for use in future courses, as it provides a practical connection between the theory from lectures and chip design. In the context of the Embedded Processor Lab and theses, students can design and produce their own chips. A third design has already been submitted for tape-out and is currently in production. Further designs are planned for upcoming iterations of Tiny Tapeout.
