After you buy: blueprint to silicon
You wired. The NDA was countersigned. The source arrived. Here is what you do with it, in order: verify at home, close timing locally, pick a foundry, engage under NDA, tape out, hold the silicon. The MEANS document that ships with each cri-one.com blueprint names every step and the pass criteria. Narration plays in your browser.
Transcript
You wired. The NDA was countersigned. Within days you held the source: RTL, photonic-HDL where applicable, the MEANS process-engineering document, the self-tests, and the license. This is what you do with it.
Day one: verify what you bought. The IP ships with simulation testbenches. Run them in iverilog or your HDL tool of choice. The MEANS document names each test and the exact pass criteria. For NRS-1, that is 31 of 31 and 12 of 12.
Week two through six: close timing locally. Open-source flows like OpenLane 2 take the RTL to a floor-planned DEF against open PDKs. You confirm the design closes timing, fits the area budget, and meets power. Still local, still free. If it does not close here, it will not close at the foundry.
Month two: pick your foundry. The MEANS document tells you which nodes the blueprint was designed against. NRS-1 is node-agnostic. PHC17 wants TSMC A14 primary, Rapidus 2 nanometer secondary, 2D-material fallback for research. PHC18 wants TSMC A14 with the added battery and LED modules. Buyers at this scale already have, or can secure, allocation.
Month two through four: engage the foundry. NDA, PDK access, technology mapping. Standard-cell retargeting from the open PDK you used locally to the foundry's commercial PDK. DRC and LVS clean on their design rules. This is the first real spend: engineering teams, not capital.
Month six through twelve: tapeout. Mask set plus wafer commit. Five to fifty million dollars depending on node. This is the money gate — your capital, your foundry contract, your production slot.
Month twelve through eighteen: first silicon back. Package test, device characterization. The MEANS document names the measurement program and the pass criteria. For PHC-series parts that includes the Project 84 self-test, the on-package QBeam sends and receives, and the yield metrics stated in the brief.
What you own: the use of that blueprint. Non-exclusive — other buyers can hold the same license. Perpetual, worldwide. All patents and copyrights stay with Christopher Gabriel Brown. The derivative silicon you make is yours to sell or deploy.
You bought a path, not a promise. The MEANS document, the source, and the tests make it real.
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© Christopher Gabriel Brown (CRI-ONE), cri-one.com