https://open-source-eda-letter.eu Importance of Open-Source EDA Tools for Academia Open Letter on European Strategic and Funding Directions To Whom It May Concern March 8, 2024 The recent semiconductor shortage and shifts in global political relations have changed the European roadmap on semiconductors and chip design significantly. A mix of incentives for new fabrication facilities for advanced technologies and the ambitious goals to (re) -build leading-edge chip design capabilities in Europe are key cornerstones of the European Chips Act. Under this impulse, various funding actions have been successfully launched, for instance in the area of the creation of IP based on the RISC-V instruction set. Universities have to be an integral part of Europe's ambitions and are heavily involved in research activities on various levels. This is crucial for two reasons: First, they are incubators of innovative ideas. Second, and equally important, they are of key importance to educating future generations of chip designers and related jobs. The high demand for an increased workforce can only be satisfied with tight coordination and the best support of universities. In these efforts, we believe that open source is a key success factor. The availability of open-source RISC-V IPs developed in Europe has, for example, been of seminal importance for a significant ramp-up of research activities and the rapid build-up of a vibrant research community and innovation ecosystem around RISC-V hardware and software. This has led to new groups getting involved with computer architecture and an increase in innovative research that is currently funded to get commercialized at higher technology readiness levels. A key next step is to turn innovation in computer architecture for the European market into chip designs that utilize the fabrication facilities and skilled workers that create those designs. In this trajectory, it is our strong belief that open-source chip design tools (Electronic Design Automation -EDA- tools) are essential for the European renaissance in chip design education and innovation: 1. Open-source EDA tools lower the barrier of entry significantly for students and researchers willing to engage in chip design. As such, we believe that early initiatives based on open-source EDA have already driven a significant amount of fresh talent into the semiconductor community. In addition to the current university-focused EUROPRACTICE program for access to proprietary tools and closed process design kits (PDKs), open-source EDA tools and PDKs are a great complementary offer, as they can be offered for free and under very liberal licensing terms. 2. Open-source EDA tools allow researchers and designers to collaborate easily, without the complexities and delays of three-way NDAs or similar legal agreements. Researchers and collaborators can easily share designs, ideas, and materials. This makes it much easier to engage new people from diverse fields like computer science, where open-source development is often the norm. 3. Open-source EDA tools are, for themselves, interesting for innovations, research, and development. They allow educators to let students inspect hands-on the functionality of various steps in the design automation process. Students and researchers can change the code, explore their own ideas, and gain a more profound understanding of the inner workings of a chip design process. The knowledge gained by these people will be extremely valuable for increasing Europe's footprint in the commercial EDA ecosystem. Based on the considerations above, we would like to express a strong recommendation to the European and national funding agencies: 1. Open-source EDA tools must be a first-class citizen of the ambitions to foster chip design capabilities in Europe. A focus on proprietary EDA tools alone is not sufficient when the goal is to democratize chip design in Europe. 2. Open-source EDA tools are often suited to be complementary to proprietary tools, but design platforms that focus on open-source EDA are an important goal. We value the products of proprietary EDA tool vendors for bleeding-edge chip designs (which are frequently not the focus of education and academic research). Choice and independent design platforms, commercial and alternatively open source, are indispensable. 3. Funding agencies should identify gaps in the open-source EDA tool chain and support the community in closing those gaps and further developing the open-source tools. End-to-end design flows based on open-source EDA tools must be available and will ensure a very low entrance barrier to newcomers. We thank you in advance for considering our input. We are at your availability for a more in-depth discussion on this topic. Sincerely, Initial Signatories Luca Benini, University of Bologna, Italy & ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Professor, Lead of the RISC-V PULP platform Giovanni De Micheli, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, Professor and Director LSI lab Marie-Minerve Louerat, Sorbonne University, France, Research Scientist, Coriolis Foundation hosted by CNRS Foundation Harald Pretl, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria, Professor, Maintainer of IIC-OSIC-TOOLS Stefan Wallentowitz, Hochschule Munchen University of Applied Sciences, Germany, Professor, Director at FOSSi Foundation & Director at RISC-V Signatories (242) We kindly ask educators and researchers from European academic institutions to co-sign this open letter. To co-sign, please send a mail from your university mailing address to stefan.wallentowitz@hm.edu and include your affiliation and ideally include a link to your profile. Achim D. Brucke, Professor, University of Exeter, United Kingdom Adrian Evans, Research Engineer, CEA-LIST, France Alberto Carini, Associate Professor, University of Trieste, Italy Aldo Minardo, Professor, Universita della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Italy Alessandro Aliberti, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Alessandro Barenghi, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Alessandro Bertacchini, Assistant Professor, Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy Alessandro Capotondi,, Assistant Professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy Alessio Burrello, Post-Doc Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Alexander Viehl, Division Manager, Forschungszentrum Informatik in Karlsruhe, Germany Alexandre Levisse, Senior Scientist, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland Alexandre Menu, Associate Professor, Ecole de mines de Saint-Etienne (IMT), France Alfio Di Mauro, Postdoctoral Researcher, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Alfonso Rodriguez, Associate Professor, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain Andrea Bartolini, Associate Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Andrea Acquaviva, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Andrea Cossettini, Research Cooperation Manager and Lecturer, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Andrea De Iacovo, Assistant Professor, Roma Tre University, Italy Andrea Irace, Professor, Universita di Napoli "Federico II", Italy Andrea Marongiu, Associate Professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Andrea Pignata, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Andreas Burg, Associate Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland Andreas Koch, Professor, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany Andreas Krall, Associate Professor, TU Wien, Austria Andrei Stasi, Associate Professor, Universitatea Tehnica "Gheorghe Asachi" Iasi, Romania Andy D. Pimentel, Professor, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Angel Dieguez, Professor, University of Barcelona, Spain Angelo Garofalo,, Junior Assistant Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Antonio Lioy, Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Antonio Miele, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Antonio Pescape', Professor, University of Napoli "Federico II", Italy Antonio Rubio, Professor, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain Arda Yurdakul, Professor, Bogazici University, Turkey Aurelien Francillon, Professor, EURECOM, France Axel Jantsch, Professor, TU Wien, Austria Baptiste Meles, Researcher, Universite de Lorraine, France Carmelo Felicetti, Assistant Professor, University of Calabria, Italy Carmine Abbate, Professor, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy Chang Gao, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands Christian Fabre, Senior Researcher & Engineer, CEA LIST, France Christian Fager, Professor, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden Christian Falconi, Assistant Professor, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy Christian Pilato, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Christian Vogel, Professor, FH JOANNEUM, Austria Christoph Studer, Associate Professor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Christos Kotselidis, Associate Professor, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom Claudia De Vizia, Researhcer, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Claudio Giovanni Demartini, Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Cristiana Bolchini, Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Cesar Fuguet, Research Engineer, CEA-List, France Calin Bira, Associate Professor, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania Daniel Grosse, Professor, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria Daniela De Venuto, Professor, Politecnico di Bari, Italy Daniele Jahier Pagliari, Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Daniele Passaretti, Associate Researcher, Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany Daniele Passeri, Associate Professor, University of Perugia, Italy Dario Suarez Gracia, Associate Professor. Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain David Atienza Alonso, Professor, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland David Castells-Rufas, Professor, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain David Esseni, Professor, University of Udine, Italy David Mallasen Quintana, Research and Teaching Assistant, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Davide Bertozzi, Reader, University of Manchester, United Kingdom Davide Brunelli, Associate Professor, University of Trento, Italy Davide Maltoni, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Davide Rossi, Associate Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Dietmar Fey, Professor, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nurnberg (FAU), Germany Dimitrios Soudris, Professor, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Dionisios Pnevmatikatos, Professor, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Dirk Koch, Professor, Heidelberg University, Germany Domenico Balsamo, Associate Professor, Newcastle University, United Kingdom Edoardo Patti, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Eduard Alarcon, Professor, UPC BarcelonaTech, Spain Elena Gnani, Associate Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Eleonora Franchi Scarselli, Associate Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Emanuel Mihai Popovici, Director of the Embedded.Systems@UCC Group, University College Cork, Ireland Enrico Calore, Research Engineer, INFN & Visiting Professor, University of Ferrara, Italy Enrico Macii, Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Erika Pellegrino, Researcher, HPC Leonardo Labs, Italy Eugenio Villar, Professor, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain Fabio Depaoli, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Federica Zonzini, Junior Assistant Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Federico Alimenti, Associate Professor, University of Perugia, Italy Filippo Mantovani, Established Researcher, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain Francesc Moll, Associate Professor, UPC and BSC, Spain Francesca Palumbo, Associate Professor, Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy Francesco Conti, Assistant Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Francesco Daghero, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Franck Wajsburt, Lecturer, Coriolis Foundation hosted by CNRS Foundation, Sorbonne University, France Franco Fummi, Professor, Universita' di Verona, Italy Frank K. Gurkaynak, Senior Scientist, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Frederic Petrot, Professor, Grenoble INP/UGA, France Gaetano Palumbo, Professor, Universita di Catania, Italy George Lentaris,, Assistant Professor, University of West Attica, Greece Georgios I. Goumas, Associate Professor, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Gianluca Giustolisi, Professor, Universita di Catania, Italy Gianluca Palermo, Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Giovanni Ansaloni, Researcher, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland Giovanni Busatto, Professor, University of Cassino and southern Lazio, Italy Giovanni Merlino, Associate Professor, University of Messina, Italy Giovanni Pollo, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Giuseppe Aceto, PhD, Associate Professor, Universita' degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Italy Giuseppe Bertuccio, Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Giuseppe Liotta, Professor, University of Perugia, Italy Giuseppe Sarda, Researcher, KU Leuven, Belgium Giuseppe Tagliavini, Assistant Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Gracia Ester Martin Garzon, Professor, University of Almeria, Spain Guilherme Paim, Assistant Professor, University of Lisbon, Portugal Guillem Lopez Paradis, Researcher, BSC & UPC, Spain Hussam Amrouch, Professor, Technical University Munich, Germany Ian O'Connor, Professor, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France Isil Oz, Assistant Professor, Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey Jari Nurmi, Professor, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland Jaume Abella, Group Leader, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain Javier Resano,, Associate Professor, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Jean-Christophe Le Lann, Associate Professor, ENSTA Bretagne, France Jean-Michel Portal, Professor, Deputy Director of IM2NP, Aix-Marseille University, France Jens Sparso, Professor, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Denmark Jesus Alastruey Benede, Associate Professor, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Joachim Rodrigues, Head of Integrated Electronic Systems at Lund University, Sweden John Goodenough, Professor, The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom Jordi Carrabina, Professor, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Jordi Cortadella, Professor, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain Josse Van Delm, Researcher, KU Leuven, Belgium Jose L. Abellan, PostDoc Researcher, University of Murcia, Spain Jose T. de Sousa, Assistant Professor, University of Lisbon, Portugal Juan Luis Aragon, Full Professor, Universidad de Murcia, Spain Jorn Schneider, Professor, Trier University of Applied Sciences, Germany Kashif Inayat, Senior Research Engineer, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain Kasim Sinan Yildirim, Associate Professor, University of Trento, Italy Kaveh Razavi, Assistant Professor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Kevin Martin, Associate Professor, Universite de Bretagne-Sud, France Kostas Siozios, Associate Professor, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Kwantae Kim, Established Researcher, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Letizia Tanca, Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Linus Maurer, Professor, Universitat der Bundeswehr, Germany Lodovico Ratti, Professor, University of Pavia, Italy Lorenzo Bottaccioli, Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Lorenzo Palma, Assistant Professor, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy Lorenzo Pirrami, Professor, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Fribourg, Switzerland Luca Barbierato, Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Luca Benfenati, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Luca De Marchi, Associate Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Luca Fanucci, Professor, University of Pisa, Italy Luca Roselli, Professor, University of Perugia, Italy Luca Selmi, Professor, Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy Luca Sterpone, Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Luigi Pomante, Assistant Professor, Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila, Italy Luis Entrena, Professor, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Maksim Jenihhin, Associate Professor, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia Manolis Marazakis, Principal Research Scientist, Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, Greece Manuel Gericota, Professor, Polytechnic University of Porto, Portugal Manuel Rodriguez, Associate Professor, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain Marco Carminati, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Marco Re, Associate Professor, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy Marco Santambrogio, Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Marco Tartagni, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Maria Adelaide Loffa, Research Fellow, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Marian Verhelst, Professor, MICAS at KU Leuven, Belgium Mario Roberto Casu, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Marko Kosunen, Senior Researcher, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland Markus Muller, Research Associate, TU Dresden, Germany Martin Andraud, Professor, UC Louvain, Belgium & Aalto University, Finland Martin Franzle, Professor, Carl von Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg, Germany Martin Schoeberl, Professor, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark Martin Wilhelm, PostDoc, Otto-von-Guericke-Universitat Magdeburg, Germany Massimo Barbaro, Professor, Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy Massimo Conti, Professor, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Italy Massimo Poncino, Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Massimo Ruo Roch, Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Mateo Valero, Professor and Director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain Mathieu Luisier, Professor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Matthias Auf der Maur, Professor, Universita degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata", Italy Matthias Gudemann, Professor, Hochschule Munchen University of Applied Sciences, Germany Matthias Jung, Professor, Julius-Maximilians-Universitat of Wurzburg, Germany Maurizio Martina, Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Maurizio Palesi, Associate Professor, University of Catania, Italy Maurizio Valle, Professor, University of Genova, Italy Mauro Olivieri, Associate Professor, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy Michelangelo Barocci, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Michele Caselli, Research Fellow, University of Parma, Italy Michele Magno, Lecturer & Head of D-ITET center for project-based learning, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Milos Krstic, Professor, University of Potsdam, & Department Head, IHP - Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics, Germany Miquel Moreto, Associate Professor, UPC and BSC, Spain Mladen Berekovic, Professor, Universitat zu Lubeck, Germany Mohamed Amine Hamdi, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Mustak E. Yalcin, Professor, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Marius Monton, Lecturer, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain Madalin Moise, Lecturer, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania Nele Mentens, Professor, KU Leuven & Leiden University, Belgium Olivier Sentieys, Senior Research Director, Inria, France Oscar Plata, Professor, University of Malaga, Spain Ovidiu Vermesan, Chief Scientist, SINTEF Digital, Oslo, Norway Panagiotis Dimitrakis, Director of Research, Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology NCSR "Demokritos", Greece Paolo Bellavista, Professor, University of Bologna, Italy Paolo Burgio, Assistant Professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy Paolo Mattavelli, Professor, University of Padova, Italy Paolo Meloni, Associate Professor, Universita degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy Pasquale Corsonello, Professor, University of Calabria, Italy Pasquale Davide Schiavone,, PostDoc, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland Patricio Bulic, Professor, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Paul Pop, Professor, Techical University of Denmark Paulo Flores, Associate Professor, University of Lisbon, Portugal Pekka Jaaskelainen, Associate Professor, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland Philippe Coussy, Professor, Deputy Director of the Lab-STICC, Universite Bretagne Sud, France Pierpaolo Palestri, Professor. University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia, Italy Pietro Rando Mazzarino, Researhcer, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Przemyslaw Pawelczak, Associate Professor, TU Delft, Netherlands Rafael Natalio Fontana Crespo, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Raul Murillo Montero, Research and Teaching Assistant, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Rene Scholz, Group Leader, IHP, Germany Riccardo Pignari, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Robert Weigel, Professor, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Germany Roberto Giorgi, Associate Professor, University of Siena, Italy Roberto Passerone, Associate Professor, University of Trento, Italy Roberto Vergallo, Assistant Professor, University of Salento, Italy Sandro Pinto, Associate Research Professor, Universidade do Minho, Portugal Santa Di Cataldo, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Sara Vinco, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Sergio Saponara, Professor, University of Pisa, Italy Shreejith Shanker, Assistant Professor, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Simone Benatti, Assistant Professor, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy Stefan Heinen, Professor, RWTH Aachen University, Germany Stefano Caselli, Professor, University of Parma, Italy Stefano Paraboschi, Professor, University of Bergamo, Italy Sebastien, Le Nours, Associate Professor, University Nantes, France Taekwang Jang, Assistant Professor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Thomas Benz, Researcher, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Thorsten Knoll, Researcher, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Germany Tommaso Polonelli, Lecturer, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Valerio Vignoli, Professor, University of Siena, Italy Vedran Bilas, Professor, University of Zagreb, Croatia Victor Kartsch, Postdoc Researcher, ETH Zurich, Switzerland Victor Vinals, Professor, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Viktor Razilov, Research Associate, TU Dresden, Germany Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Assistant Professor, Tampere University, Finland Vittorio Fra, Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Vittorio Zaccaria, Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Victor Soria Pardos, Research Engineer, UPC and BSC, Spain Walter Gallego Gomez, Researcher, Politecnico di Torino, Italy Wayne Luk, Professor, Imperial College London, United Kingdom Xaveer Leijtens, Associate Professor, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey This letter is hosted by FOSSi Foundation. FOSSi Foundation supports the letter, but the initial signatories are the authors of the letter. Legal information.