Baochip-1x: A Mostly-Open, 22nm SoC for High Assurance Applications
Summary
Baochip-1x is a mostly-open, full-custom 22nm SoC designed for high-assurance applications, featuring a 350MHz VexRiscv core with an MMU, plus a secondary I/O processor cluster and nonvolatile memory. The post argues for open silicon approaches, discusses the tradeoffs of open vs closed components, and outlines market strategy, production status, and the potential of running open software stacks like Xous on an MMU-enabled platform. It situates Baochip-1x within Betrusted’s open hardware movement and highlights ongoing sampling and planned production ramp-up.