Retro-µC 2021 Test Tape-out

I found some time to work on the Retro micro-controller again and perform a test tape-out in TSMC 0.35um technology. I was also contacted by Matt Venn for an interview. We agreed to also discuss this tape-out during the interview. This relieved me from the (in my eyes) boring task of writing an extensive blog post on it. The interview is published on Matt Venn's Zero To ASIC Course YouTube channel.

Just wanted to do a little additional expectation management. Due to the current chip squeeze TSMC is less tolerant for canceled MPW (multi-project wafer) reservations. In order to meet the deadline for this run I did take several shortcuts, amongst others in verifying the design and the P&R outcome. So I would not be surprised if this chip isn't working. I did achieve the goal though of setting up the use of Coriolis for place-and-route together with the standard cell library I am developing.