Iād settle for a processor die shrink from 28 nm down to 10-14 nm.
3 Likes
Does anything work like that? I recall that Google had some program about open source chip fabrication, but that was on some bigger process. Universities also etch their own chips, but I donāt know if they do that for general purpose silicon as opposed to specialized processes (e.g. optics).
Unless someone opens up a process library for small nodes, you canāt build open chips anyway. That was kind of the goal of the google project.
Meanwhile, Iām hoping for RISC-V competition to warm up.
1 Like
- So my wishes for Librem 5 Fir is that come a smaller screen from 5.7 to 5.5 or 5.0 this monitor more power efficient, 720p it fine because small screen already, or 1080p a plus.
- Please please remove-purge the current sim tray.
- Remove some boot blobs, like 2D booting maybe.
- DD make a Delicious Design like reduce thickness, improve grip, improve cpu heatless, please remove the big metal around to reduce heat sensitivity in my hands at least, better material for body.
- Add a fancy modem-speaker and main-speaker, current evergreeen main speaker it is a shame.
- Please add built-in FLIR lepton 4.0 camera sensor, this will make atractive and unique for L5.
- Also many fixes and improvement, revamping everywhere. PURISM Technologies.
I work for a large chip manufacturer. My job is to validate the functions of new silicon chips after the design work has been completed. So I am one of the first for my employer, to hook up the new prototypes when they come out of the fab, to see if they work as expected or not, and to see how well they work if they do work.
For chips that are fabricated internally, the chip manufacturing company just runs the new designs in one of their own fabs. But some chips are designed to be fabricated only by an outside foundary. In such cases, the foundary has to allow their new customers (chip manufacturers) to get small amounts of test chips made and tested, before their customer goes all-in financially, to get a large number of chips made. In small numbers, those chips are expensive. But they are available in small numbers. We once ordered and received only twenty of them. The price at that quantity certainly wouldnāt fit in to my personal budget.
The only reason I know about this is that I was the one tasked to pay for the chips and to run the initial silicon validation on them. Itās not like a publicly announced program. Not many people do this because the average customer for a founadry is a big chip manufacturer. But if you work for a large chip manufacturer that farms out chip fabrication work to foundarys, itās very common to order small numbers of prototypes this way in the R&D phase of new product development. A part of the expense is that mask costs in the smallest of fabrication processes, can be hugely expensive. But costs come down when your mask costs and wafer space are shared with other chip manufacturers. It might be difficult or expensive (or both) for a small design house to get their new designs on to one of these shared wafers at a big foundry. You need a big foundry for the smallest fabrication processes. But itās not impossible. It might be easier in a croud sourced program to order a whole wafer, after the initial prototypes pass validation.
Getting a good phone SoC chip designed and ready for mask making would be no easy task. A big foundary will have the critical design libraries available as a part of the services that they offer. If you use their libraries, your design seems to always work the first time. With new and/or less proven libraries, Iāve seen a fair amount of bad silicon (prototypes that fail to work correctly). But with a completed proven design, itās just a matter of how to pay for production after that. But Purism hasnāt seemed to do well with big production runs either.
Another challenge for a modern phone SoC chip design would be the bringing together of many different technologies. Can the RISCāV libraries handle the analog circuit design as well as the digital? Do all technologies used in the SoC, use the same libraries, made to run on the same manufacturing processes? Someone with more knowledge than myself would have to architect both the business and Engineering ends of an opensource phone SoC. But like the phone itself, itāll happen because it has to happen if we want to continue living in a free world.
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/an-overview-of-the-top-5-semiconductor-foundry-companies-2021-10-01
5 Likes
Librem 5 backpack?
As long as youāre dreaming ā¦ Salvador Dali would have loved a folding phone. (Right next to his melting clocks.)
2 Likes
Iād rather see a discussion about getting the Evergreen working so itās no longer a work in progress. Put the effort into what needs work and not share that time and $'s with any new ideas for a new device build.
~f
I like the idea of a second screen, but more of pager type mini display say on the back of the phone that is scrollable, OLED watch size that shows notifications, is always on, shows connectivity status, or any issues encountered, something akin to a production machine interface reporting status of all the components and is configurable.
Could show:
- time
- date
- upcoming events
- phone status (suspended, turned off, booting, ssh connected)
- currently used connection VPN yes no (WIFI, WWAN, Bluetooth, NFC)
- runtime remaining est
- temp cpu, gpu
- warning, errors from the kernel!
Similar to the MNT reform keyboard display.
And a little overkill but good for reading i suppose the yotaphone 2 YotaPhone 2 with the eink display. I am actually surprised somewhat the company still exists!
It is possible to re-design the phone as better look similar as Iphone with silver chassis with 3 cameras.
1 Like
Yes it is possible a fancy desing from Purism.
Like Pinephone more or less?
1 Like
It Librem 5 phone is long term phone. I do wish have better design for the phone. similar as Xiomi Phone or Samsung Galaxy Note 22.
1 Like
I am very happy with the physical design of the L5. The only things I would change (not in any meaningful order):
- Move the SIM and uSD to internal.
- Beef up the headphone port. I suspect it is getting loose. I use it every day during commute, so it gets lots of plug/unplug cycles and it has started to be sensitive to axial positioning of the plug (static). This may be due to the case as much as the jack.
- Better heat dissipation!
The human factors design is far better than I expected from the first usable GNU/LINUX mobile phone. I donāt miss my Samsung Galaxy in the least. Kudos!
Edit: Just realized that I made some of the same comments way up this thread. Oh wellā¦ I just hope that Purism continues on their current software-centric path for the L5. THIS IS THE WAY.
5 Likes
I think that will always be a challenge with an upgradable phone like the Librem 5 because you have to accommodate standard size modules which other phones like the iPhones and Samsungs are not beholden too and also have the deep pockets to get custom chipsets with all their circuit blocks in power optimized formats. I mean Purism might get there but itās too early I would think. Again they are the David against the Goliathās in this space.
2 Likes
Since the chassis is metal, you can probably achieve that silver look with emery cloth! (Much like the patina of that other thread where he dropped it a lot after several months, but more so.)
1 Like
An Option to install an Android based system native, like grapheneOS. The kill-switches are the most important thing on the Librem 5. A Linux System for the Desktop-Mode, native or virtually. I think running two different systems native at the same time on the same cpu isānt possible or?
Camo cerakote?
You can probably achieve it automatically without doing anything specifically, if you are prepared to wait long enough. One edge of the bottom face of my phone is a little silver already, after 2 years. 
1 Like
Why?! The L5 looks pretty good to me. No need to make it look like something that contains makeup. And why three cameraās? It is a phone, not a camera.
2 Likes
Eh? OK, I believe I was wrong in my suspicion. My problem appears to be in the patch cables between phone and automobile head unit. Works perfectly in my truck using identical cables, but the truck is not used nearly as often. I need to buy some more robust cables!
5 Likes