The OpenTitan coalition and the lowRISC silicon ecosystem have announced that OpenTitan has achieved commercial availability as an open-source silicon project.
This significant milestone highlights five years of collaboration and substantial investments by the OpenTitan Coalition, which includes industry leaders like Google, Winbond, Nuvoton, zeroRISC, Rivos, Western Digital, Seagate, ETH Zurich, and G+D Mobile Security. The initiative was hosted by the non-profit lowRISC.
OpenTitan is a commercial-grade, open-source silicon platform designed to deliver a trustworthy, transparent, and secure foundation for silicon development. Its open aspects enable industry-wide collaboration, while proprietary components allow companies to maintain profitability.
OpenTitan features permissively licensed digital design, documentation, verification, and ROM code. ZeroRISC plays a crucial role in this initiative, contributing significantly to the OpenTitan team, while offering proprietary software and integration solutions.
Gavin Ferris, CEO of lowRISC, expressed pride in the partnership's achievement, stating, “This is the culmination of the hard work of a vibrant community focused on a singular goal: to make open-source silicon as effective as open-source software. I look forward to what’s next.”
Initiated by Google in 2018, the OpenTitan project aims to create a transparent and secure silicon platform. It sets a new standard by integrating commercial-grade design verification, extensive testing, and continuous integration into an open-source secure chip. OpenTitan serves as a hardware root of trust, ensuring secure system booting with authorized and verifiable code.
Miguel Osorio, OpenTitan lead at Google, stated, “OpenTitan in silicon represents the dedication and effort of our team. It’s a pivotal moment for us and all project contributors.” Supported by Google, OpenTitan has become the most active and successful open-source silicon project to date.
In 2023, OpenTitan achieved critical milestones, including its first discrete silicon tapeout in June and the announcement of the first System-on-Chip (SoC) secure execution environment (SEE) in November. This SEE features Root of Trust (RoT) functionality, allowing partners to embed OpenTitan in their SoC and chiplet designs.
Erez Naory, vice president of client and security products at Nuvoton, emphasized pride in launching the "EarlGrey" OpenTitan chip design, reinforcing their leadership in secure integrated circuits.
“Our mission is to elevate the OpenTitan project by delivering comprehensive product security solutions from an open silicon foundation,” said Dom Rizzo, CEO of zeroRISC. “The swift delivery of commercial products post-tapeout showcases the coalition’s momentum. We anticipate a future where transparent and trustworthy supply chains are the norm.”
Tung-Yi Chan, Vice Chairman at Winbond, highlighted the importance of securely integrating certified Intellectual Properties (IPs).
The OpenTitan coalition is committed to maintaining this momentum, with upcoming milestones that include the full production release of the “Darleeling” integrated OpenTitan SEE and the production release of “Chai,” which will support secure external flash. An updated version of the “EarlGrey” chip design is also on the way.
OpenTitan's success sets a precedent for open silicon implementations, paving the way for transparency and trustworthiness in supply chains. This achievement represents a significant advancement at the intersection of open-source principles and commercial-grade silicon platforms.
In contrast to other chip ecosystems, such as RISC-V—which has an open specification—OpenTitan’s IP ecosystem offers permissively licensed open-source implementations. The “Earl Grey” design incorporates a small RISC-V core, the Ibex 32-bit microcontroller, along with various peripheral components, providing a comprehensive open-source chip solution.
Unlike OpenTitan, ARM maintains a proprietary approach in both specifications and implementations. While OpenTitan's design is permissively licensed, specific configurations are trademarked to ensure adherence to the project's security and quality standards.
Notably, lowRISC has expanded to comprise up to 30 employees, reflecting the project’s ongoing growth and potential.
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