Project update 9 of 9
We’re moving full speed ahead toward a test wafer run, sponsorship to fund Open-V is still a real (if slowly evolving) possibility, and we’re extending the campaign one final time, without impacting the main production schedule.
As we discussed in a previous update, the next test run of the Open-V chip will take place in collaboration with SiFive as part of their May multi-project wafer (MPW) run. In preparation, we’ve been meeting with the SiFive team every two weeks and we’ve started delivering IP blocks to them. Getting ready for this MPW has been a lot of work, but we’re on schedule and looking forward to the results when they come back in June.
In a previous update, we described the process we’re going through to receive a grant from an interested, credible partner. That situation hasn’t changed much - they are still interested and credible, but they are slow moving. If nothing else, we think the fact the process is still moving at all is a good sign. We will keep everyone posted as soon as we have news one way or the other.
This is it! We’ve already extended the campaign twice before, though the duration of each extension was arbitrary. We’re going to extend the campaign one more time, and this time the duration of the extension actually means something. In particular, we’re going to extend the campaign until June 30, 2017.
As mentioned above, we’re already racing toward the MPW run, which doesn’t depend on the money from this campaign. We’ll get the results of the MPW back sometime in June, at which point we will need to put into action our plans for actual production, which is where the big expenses covered by this campaign come in.
By June 30, we will either need the money from this campaign to continue the work needed to bring the Open-V chip to production, or we will need to shut down the project or drastically change the production schedule, neither of which would be fair to our backers.
As in our previous campaign extension announcements, we will honor any order cancellations up through the end of the campaign. (No credit cards have actually been charged yet.)
Thanks for all your support. In our next update, we’ll return to our more technical progress reports, or have definitive news about the grant we’re hoping to get.
Abrazos,
Elkim and the entire OnChip team