OpenTitan Achieves Historic lowRISC Milestone: First Commercially Available Open-Source Silicon Project with Validated Chips”
lowRISC C.I.C. and the OpenTitan coalition have achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first open-source silicon project to attain commercial availability, complete with validated chips. This achievement is the outcome of substantial support and investment from nine coalition members, including Google, Winbond, Nuvoton, zeroRISC, Rivos, Western Digital, Seagate, ETH Zurich, and Giesecke+Devrient. The non-profit organization lowRISC CIC hosts this collaborative effort.
lowRISC
Dr. Gavin Ferris, CEO of lowRISC, expressed immense pride in the success of the OpenTitan partnership, noting it as the first-ever production of a commercial-quality open-source chip globally. This accomplishment reflects the dedicated efforts of a vibrant community focused on the unprecedented goal of making open-source silicon function similarly to open-source software. Dr. Ferris extended gratitude for the support and eagerly anticipates future developments.
The OpenTitan project, initiated by Google in collaboration with lowRISC and partners in 2018, aimed to create a transparent and trustworthy secure silicon platform. As the world’s first open-source secure chip with commercial-grade design verification, top-level testing, and continuous integration, OpenTitan serves as the hardware root of trust. It ensures the integrity of the hardware infrastructure and the software it runs by verifying that critical system components securely boot using only authorized and verifiable code.
With Google’s backing, the project gained momentum, evolving into the most active and successful open-source silicon project in history. The OpenTitan coalition followed a well-defined roadmap, progressing from discrete to integrated secure silicon designs, with engaged partners ensuring adaptability to various applications. Beyond formal partners, the OpenTitan community has grown substantially, handling numerous pull requests and issues monthly.
Miguel Osorio, OpenTitan lead at Google, emphasized the significance of OpenTitan in silicon, acknowledging the dedication and hard work of the team. Erez Naory, VP of client and security products at Nuvoton, highlighted the proud moment of bringing the first ‘EarlGrey’ OpenTitan chip design to market, demonstrating leadership in open, secure integrated circuits (ICs). Naory noted that open-source secure silicon represents a radical leap forward in meeting the market’s demand for a genuinely trustworthy foundation.
