MERL is contributing in Open Source with Project "Add FuseSoC Support at SoC level for Azadi SoC" under the Mentorships of our Graduate Research Intern "Zeeshan Rafique" and Research Associate "Zain Khan". Nameer Iqbal Ansari will be the Contributor for this Project.

Our Research Intern at MERL and a Final Year Software Engineering Student at Usman Institute of Technology - University (UITU), Talha Ahmed has been selected as a Contributor for this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC'22). He will be contributing in the project "Register File Generator" for Univeristy of California - Center for Research in Open Source Software (UC-CROSS) Organization.

Our Research Intern at MERL and a Third Year Electronic Engineering Student at Usman Institute of Technology - University (UITU), Nimra Khan has been selected as a Contributor for this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC'22). She will be contributing in the project "Demos and Tutorials" for Univeristy of California - Center for Research in Open Source Software (UC-CROSS) Organization.

Our Research Intern at MERL and a Third Year Electronic Engineering Student at Usman Institute of Technology - University (UITU), Nameer Iqbal Ansari has been selected as a Contributor for this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC'22). He will be contributing in the project "Add FuseSoC support at SoC level for Azadi-SoC and Rebase IBEX Core with latest commit" for Micro Electronics Research Lab (MERL-UITU) Organization.

Our Research Intern at MERL and an Final Year Computer Systems Engineering Student at Usman Institute of Technology - University (UITU), Kinza Qamar Zaman has been selected as a Contributor for this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC'22). She will be contributing in the project "TinyParrot: A Minimal Blackparrot RISC-V Multicore Variant" for Free Open Source Silicon (FOSSI) Foundation Organization.

Our Physical Design Engineer at MERL who is also serving as a Jr. Lecturer in the Dept of Electrical Engineering at Usman Institute of Technology - University (UITU), Miss Rameen Anwar has been selected as a Contributor for this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC'22). She will be contributing in the project "Fault Silicon Validation and Open MPW Integration" for Free Open Source Silicon (FOSSI) Foundation Organization.

Another Milestone, Micro Electronics Research Lab - MERL UIT at UIT University is participating in Google Summer of Code 2022 as an organisation member. Now you can join as mentees in projects, if interested: Please see the list of projects: Click Here !

It’s year 2022 and we are pleased to announce another ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!! Pakistan placing it's name in The Linux Foundation mentorship program. Congratulations Usman Zain, a Research Associate at Micro Electronics Research Lab has been selected as a Mentee in the Linux Foundation Mentorship’22 programme to contribute in opensource software porting on RISC-V under the mentorship of Wei Wu and Ji Qui from PLCT lab China. The LFX Mentorship Program has total 7 RISCV projects. 5 of which have selected Mentees, 3 out of 5 mentees are from Pakistan and 2 out of 3 are from MERL-UIT University. #research #mentorship #LFX #riscv

After putting a lot of effort into achieving milestones, that we never thought of but with selfless efforts and devotion, we have made it. Now, it’s a start of year 2022 and we are pleased to announce another ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED !! Pakistan 🇵🇰 placing it's name on Linux Foundation. Congratulations Shahzaib Kashif, a Research Intern at MERL and a student in the 7th semester Software Engineering Department, has been selected as a Mentee in the Linux Foundation Mentorship '22 programme. It is a platform developed by the Linux Foundation, which accelerates the adoption, innovation, and sustainability of open source software. #mentorship #opensource #LFX #MERL #UITU

“Ibtida” means "The Beginning", this System on a Chip (SoC) is the start of many RISC-V-based SoCs to come. It is the first CHISEL-based chip that have been taped out from Pakistan, designed by Muhammad Hadir Khan, Sajjad Ahmed, and Usman Zain; engineering graduate and undergraduate students respectively. The physical layout of the design is achieved by Aireen Amir Jalal, who is also an engineering graduate. Ibtida is a simple SoC, with GPIO as a peripheral, external instruction, and data memories, connected with the Tilelink interconnect. It is built around RISC-V-based 5 stage pipelined core Buraq-Mini, all developed from scratch using CHISEL. FEATURES:

• RV32IM extension support.
• 5 stage pipelined core.
• Separate instruction and data memories (each 256 Bytes).
• TileLink Un-Cached Lightweight (TL-UL) Bus Protocol.
• GPIO peripheral with 30 I/Os connected to the I/O pads.

An SoC (System on a Chip) design for Google-sponsored Open MPW shuttles for SKY130. The processor core is the 3-stage version of the Buraq Core RV32IMC. The hardware implementation incorporates options such as IRQ, Multiply, Divide, and the compressed (16 bit) ISA for embedded applications. The SoC has peripherals such as GPIO, UART, a platform level interrupt controller (PLIC) as well as a timer and a debug module all connected using the Tilelink Interconnect and is going to be fabricated using a 130nm process in collaboration with Efabless and SkyWater which will be funded by Google. FEATURES:

• Support for M extension with a single cycle "Fast" multiplier
• Separate instruction and data memories
• Tilelink Un-Cached Lightweight (TL-UL) Bus Protocol
• 32 GPIO with configurable interrupts and option for masked writing
• 2 pin full duplex UART
• RISC-V compliant interrupt controller
• 64-bit timer with 12-bit prescaler and 8-bit step register
• JTAG Test Access Port (TAP) for debug

MERL is a project aimed to enable Pakistan to become a recognized global player in the semiconductor industry. MERL has developed the country’s first homegrown open-source microprocessor. The UITU team leveraged the
RISC-V-based open-source architecture to produce the said processor that may transform the local tech manufacturing industry.
Behind the remarkable development are UITU’s undergraduate engineering and computer science students, faculty, and a couple of international mentors. UITU is the only undergraduate nstitute in Pakistan to be teaching processor designing based on RISC-V in the undergraduate program.