Today the PASTA project announced it has created a silicon implementation of the EnCore processor, and that the first sample parts are fully-functional.

"This is an important milestone for the project, as it demonstrates the research group's capability to produce working silicon from novel processor IP developed within the project. We are extremely pleased the design worked out-of-the-box in first silicon, and delighted with the chip's stability, operating frequency and low power consumption".

Prof Nigel Topham

PASTA Project Leader- School of Informatics at Edinburgh

The Calton chip was fabricated by UMC in Taiwan, on their 130nm process via the Europractice Mini@sic multi-project wafer program. The chip went to the foundry in December 2008 and returned for testing in May 2009. More technical details on the Calton chip can be found here.