Might as well just link directly to the blog post: https://essenceia.github.io/projects/blake2s_hashing_acceler...

Very cool but I stopped reading when I realized that the blog post was written by an LLM.

> These weren’t just inconveniences; they fundamentally shaped the architecture, capping performance more than any internal logic constraints.

This sentence sealed the deal for me but I was already suspicious for the preceeding sections.

See also Luke Wren's Mastodon thread on taping out a RISC-V chip in two weeks: https://types.pl/@wren6991/115572086565318699

RP2040 is not new. A bit odd to say it is. I then thought maybe this was from a few years ago, but it's not, so idk

I know he jokes that running a marathon is theoretically possible with running shoes, it really isn't too hard though with programs like Couch to 5km https://c25k.com/. Multiple members of family have run marathons from as little as 6 months from nothing.

This is very interesting, for someone not involved in doing chip design, it's very interesting to get an idea of the open source landscape. Very exiting. I like the idea of consolidating some power electronics and logic into a single chip at some point, for example a BLDC driver with embedded MOSFETs, gate drivers and MCU. But this is a pipe dream for now. But I know it's possible.

I already see single-chip battery chargers (admittedly a lot simpler) that do both the charging logic (constant current until setpoint, then constant voltage until current drops below configured threshold).

A lot of stuff could be consolidated into single chips, making PCBs smaller and simplyfing designs.

It is a bit misleading to say 'Solo', when TinyTapeout is involved.

Still clearly effortful work, though. I don't want to disparage it.

I keep subconsciously dismissing TinyTapeout because the time horizon is so long and I don't have a cool project idea that requires an ASIC, but it's probably a really good idea to do uncool things that don't require ASICs, to become familiar with the process and be able to do cool things later eventually. (Libre Hardware phone, anyone?)