HACKER Q&A
📣 caaaadr

NYC Community Chip Fabs?


I'm interested in experimenting with designing a CPU and GPU, so I was curious what my options are for manufacturing and iterating on this kind of thing

For physical manufacturing, is there something like makerspaces or community biotech labs https://www.genspace.org/ in NYC? I ask about NYC cause that's closer to me

Or is simulation the only real way to go as an individual who is experimenting?

Thanks for your help :)

  👤 al2o3cr Accepted Answer ✓
Getting significant silicon fabricated is still outside of hobbyist territory. Programs like Tiny Tapeout exist, but the available area and feature size are not "build your own GPU" material.

https://efabless.com/tinytapeout

FPGAs are likely your best bet to start out, although large ones can still get very expensive very fast. You can start out by learning a design language (eg Verilog) and testing your designs in simulation without buying any hardware.