News: 0001570840

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Libre-Chip Awarded NLnet Grant To Prototype A CPU That Isn't Vulnerable To Spectre Flaws

([Hardware] 76 Minutes Ago Libre-Chip)


The Libre-Chip project led by Jacob Lifshay has received a grant from NLNet to develop a prototype/proof-of-concept processor design that can be high performance but not vulnerable to speculative execution vulnerabilities like Spectre.

Libre-Chip is an effort to develop free/libre CPU/GPU designs and supporting software. Jacob Lifshay is leading the Libre-Chip project and he previously was the one working on [1]Vulkan-CPU and [2]Kazan as a CPU-based Vulkan implementation . Joining Libre-Chip as co-founder is Cesar Strauss. Libre-Chip isn't to be confused with the separate [3]Libre-SoC project that appears to be more or less dormant now without having delivered on its main objectives.

Lifshay [4]announced the securing of the €50000 NLnet grant to help in its development:

"Modern computers suffer from a constant stream of new speculative-execution security flaws (Spectre-style bugs). To address this major category of flaws, the Libre-chip team is working towards building a high-performance computer processor (CPU) with speculative execution and working on a mathematical proof that it doesn't suffer from any speculative-execution data leaks, thereby demonstrating that this major category of flaws can be eliminated without crippling the computer's performance.

Libre-Chip has been awarded a € 50000 grant from NLnet to build a fully Libre/Open-source initial proof-of-concept CPU as well as attempting to mathematically prove that that CPU doesn't have any speculative-execution security flaws.

Libre-Chip is a project for creating Free/Libre computer chips, such as CPUs/GPUs and their supporting software."

Those wanting to learn more about the grant can do so [5]here .

Those wishing to learn more about the new Libre-Chip project can do so via [6]Libre-Chip.org .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Vulkan-CPU-Working-Vertex

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Kazan-State-September-2017

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Libre-SoC

[4] https://forum.libre-chip.org/t/libre-chip-awarded-grant-from-nlnet-to-prove-lack-of-spectre-vulnerabilities-without-compromising-cpu-performance/41/2

[5] https://libre-chip.org/grants/nlnet-first.html

[6] https://libre-chip.org/



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