Singapore's open silicon hub
Open the chip
A home for people in Singapore who want to design, make and understand chips: makers, students, researchers, and people in government and industry. Come to a workshop, see the exhibition, and help build the hub.
The study opens three everyday objects in turn: a transit card, a rice cooker and a phone. Each comes apart until its chip lifts out. The view then dives into the chip: its package, the floorplan of the silicon die, and finally one tiny circuit, with the schematic of its transistors drawn over the layout. After the three objects, a shared-run open chip appears with one project signed by the hub's tile. The view dives into silicon's crystal, and one atom becomes the tile on the final card.
Why open silicon
From sand to phone
Open tools let more people design chips. A published design lets you inspect its layers and compare them with the silicon. Follow a chip from quartz to a phone, or pick a step.
Quartz is turned into silicon, purified and melted. The silicon grows into a single crystal, which is sliced into wafers.
Events
Events
Workshops, talks and milestones for chips in progress.
Upcoming
- Late November to early December 2026Dates to be confirmedworkshop
Tiny Tapeout workshops at ArtScience Museum
Design a small piece of a real chip, from a first circuit to a submitted design on the museum's shared run.
- 7 Dec 2026milestone
Designs due for the museum's shared chip run
Workshop designs must be submitted to Tiny Tapeout's TTGF26d run by this date.
- Estimated June 2027Dates to be confirmedmilestone
Chips expected back from the fab
Makers collect and test their own chips, and the designs can be checked against the silicon.
Past
- 30 Sep 2026workshop
Chip design workshop
The second September session, with participants and teaching assistants who carry on into the November run.
- 28 Sep 202614:00–18:00workshop
Chip design workshop
A first afternoon of designing a chip with open tools, for the In the Ether 3 programme.
In the Ether 3
The exhibition
Explore ten objects from In the Ether 3 exhibition at ArtScience Museum: chips, devices, and the materials and methods behind them.
About
About the hub
The hub started with chip design workshops for In the Ether 3, run with Tiny Tapeout.
Enthusiasts
The open-source, open-hardware and maker communities who already build things in the open.
Academia and research
Students, professors and labs who teach, research and want their designs made.
Government and industry
Agencies, companies and people moving into the semiconductor industry.