Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

PowerCommons SoC

Complete Open Verifiable System-on-Chip

The Final Frontier of Open Hardware

PowerCommons SoC represents the culmination of our liberation technology vision: a complete computing system with zero proprietary components, from the smallest logic gate to the highest-level firmware. This isn’t just another open processor project - it’s the blueprint for truly sovereign computing infrastructure.

Architecture Overview

Heterogeneous Multi-Core Design

The PowerCommons SoC employs a heterogeneous architecture optimizing for both security and performance:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 PowerCommons SoC                      │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                       │
│  ┌──────────────┐         ┌──────────────────────┐   │
│  │  Microwatt   │◄───────►│      A2O Core       │   │
│  │  (Control)   │ AXI/WB. │    (Compute)        │   │
│  │              │         │                     │   │
│  │ - Boot       │         │ - Applications      │   │
│  │ - Security   │         │ - Linux OS          │   │
│  │ - BMC func   │         │ - User workloads    │   │
│  └──────────────┘         └──────────────────────┘   │
│         │                           │                │
│         └─────────┬─────────────────┘                │
│                   ▼                                  │
│        ┌─────────────────────┐                       │
│        │   Coherent NoC      │                       │
│        │   (LiteX Based)     │                       │
│        └─────────────────────┘                       │
│                   │                                  │
│    ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐                  │
│    ▼              ▼              ▼                  │
│ ┌──────┐    ┌──────────┐    ┌────────┐             │
│ │ DDR4 │    │ PCIe Gen3│    │  SATA  │             │
│ │ Ctrl │    │ Root Cplx│    │  Ctrl  │             │
│ └──────┘    └──────────┘    └────────┘             │
│                                                      │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐            │
│ │        Peripheral Subsystem          │            │
│ │ UART | SPI | I2C | GPIO | Ethernet   │            │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────┘            │
│                                                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Core Responsibilities

Microwatt Core (In-Order)

  • First-stage bootloader
  • Secure boot verification
  • BMC functionality
  • Power management
  • Thermal control
  • System monitoring
  • Trust root

A2O Core (Out-of-Order)

  • Operating system execution
  • Application workloads
  • High-performance computing
  • Virtual machine hosting
  • Database operations
  • Scientific computing

PowerCommons SoC isn’t just another processor project - it’s the foundation for a new era of transparent, trustworthy computing. Every line of code, every logic gate, every design decision is open to inspection, modification, and improvement by the community it serves.