Cornell Custom Silicon Systems (C2S2)

ABOUT US

The Cornell Custom Silicon Systems (C2S2) Project Team is a new project team funded through the Shen Fund for Social Impact. We leverage this emerging open-source hardware ecosystem to enable undergraduate students to specify, design, implement, test, fabricate, and evaluate custom computer chips. The final outcome will be a custom computer chip integrated on a custom circuit board with a complete software stack targeting an important application domain (we are currently partnered with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology). This ambitious student-led team is likely unique across US universities, and will inspire a new generation of computer system designers.

WHY C2S2?

Silicon CMOS chips are at the heart of every modern computing device from the smallest Internet-of-Things (IoT) device to the largest supercomputer. Unfortunately, undergraduate students currently do not have any opportunity to actually go through the process of fully specifying, designing, implementing, testing, fabricating, and evaluating a computer chip. Undergraduates leave Cornell thinking that fabricating computer chips is only possible at huge companies like Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and Apple. Until recently, there was no realistic hands-on way for students to experience the complete computer chip design process. At the same time, exposing students to the beauty of computer chip design has never been more important, since the slowing of CMOS technology scaling means computer system designers must increasingly rely on specialized computer chips for continued improvements in performance and/or energy efficiency.

How can students (from freshmen to seniors) gain hands-on computer chip design experience? The answer lies in the recent explosion in open-source chip design tools, open-source chip implementations, open-source process design kits, and low-cost computer chip fabrication services. Just as open-source software has democratized software design, open-source hardware is poised to democratize hardware design.

CURRENT SPONSORS

We are incredibly grateful for the unwavering support from our current sponsors, such as the Shen Fund for Social Impact, AMD, Cadence, and Sandia National Labs. Our team would not be possible without their contributions, and we have gained incredible insight and opportunities thanks to them. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

By donating to our project team, you will not only help us by aiding ornithologists and their efforts to understand Scrub Jay behavior, but also contribute to C2S2's mission of enabling undergraduate students to engage in the field of chip design. Your contribution will help cover the costs of projects like Tiny Tapeout, which provides new members with hands-on chip design experience; the fabrication of PCBs to host our custom chips; and FPGA boards for testing and verifying our designs. We thank you for your support and want you to know that our mission would not be possible without the generosity of donors like you.