Dabao Open Hardware Hackathon · incl. board pickup at Devcon 8 (Pickup Nov 3 - 6)

about this event

Pick up a free, limited edition Dabao at Devcon 8, build something cool on it, win up to $5,000. Open software on secret hardware misses the point. The Dabao runs the Baochip-1x / CrossBar Daric — a chip whose design source we published OSS, and whose die you can inspect with IRIS. Register here, pick up your limited-edition Devcon 8 board in Mumbai, and show us what an open chip lets you build. The challenge: "Show us something cool on this board, win a prize." No categories, no required stack.

Hackathon Important Dates — Duration: November 3 – December 15. In-Person Pickup in Mumbai: November 3 – 6. Results Announced: December 18. PS: Dear hackers, please consider participating in the workshop "Ethereum Signer on Dabao" by Nicolas Bacca at the Devcon venue on November 4th at 5pm. This can be used as a technical onboarding demo.

How it works: Register on this page and choose your pickup window. Opt in as a Builder to reserve your board. Start now — the tools and the BIO simulator are on GitHub. No board needed yet. Pick up your Dabao in Mumbai Nov 3–6 at the Impact Space or at our Launch Event. Build from the day you pick up, at the Impact Space bench or wherever you are. Participate in the Dabao workshop on November 4th from 5–6pm. Submit your project — a repo, a video and a write-up — by Tues, Dec 15, 9 pm ET. Submission link to be announced to accepted hackers. Judging and winners announced online Fri, Dec 18, 9 pm ET.

Prizes: Up to $5,000 for the builds that impress our judges most.

Pickup: Tue Nov 3 – Fri Nov 6 at the CrossBar Impact Space, Jio World Centre (until 15:00 on Nov 6). Weds Nov 4 at the Sovrency C8 Launch Event, Sofitel Mumbai BKC. Please register separately at https://luma.com/qwlh11yl. Can't make it to Mumbai? Request a board under "Direct Shipping" and we'll send it to you.

What "something cool" can mean: BIO · I/O engine — make the four 700 MHz RISC-V I/O cores do something new. Signing · Ethereum — a signer you can inspect: crypto accelerators, key store, TRNG on open RTL. Verification — check the chip against its source; build a tool others can reuse. Countermeasures — attack it, then defend it: glitch sensors, security mesh, ECC RAM. Xous · Rust OS — an app that needs the MMU. Tooling — make the next hacker faster.

How we judge: Works — a live demo on the board, not a slide. New — something the chip enables that other boards don't. Open — source published, reproducible by the next person. Uses the silicon — BIO, MMU, crypto, IRIS: the more of the chip, the better.

The jury: Mark Davis, CEO Crossbar Inc.; Jo Sung, CTO Crossbar Inc.; Bunnie Huang, Founder Baochip; Surprise judge 1; Surprise judge 2; Surprise judge 3.

The board: VexRiscv RV32IMAC @ 350 MHz with an MMU; BIO: 4× PicoRV32 @ 700 MHz I/O co-processor; 4 MiB RRAM + 2 MiB SRAM; USB 2.0 HS, SPI, I²C, UART, ADC, camera; crypto accelerators, TRNG, key store, glitch sensors, security mesh; TSMC 22 nm, IRIS-inspectable package, RTL published; runs Xous, a Rust microkernel. 100% of our own design — CrossBar's and Baochip's — is open. Some third-party IP is closed, and we say so.

Start before Mumbai: Getting Started with Baochip xous-core on GitHub; the BIO co-processor and its tools; board design files.

FAQ — Do I have to be in Mumbai? Yes, to get a free board. Free boards are handed out only in person in Mumbai around Devcon 8. Can't make it to Mumbai? We're happy to ship you one; you just cover the $20 shipping. How many boards are there? A limited number, 1 board per hacker. What do I submit? One link: a repo, a video or a write-up. Source published, so the next person can reproduce it. Who judges? Engineers from CrossBar and Baochip, and valued community members. Am I on the right Luma page? This page is for the Hackathon signup. If you wish to just pick up a board and inspect the chip under a world's first IRIS setup, sign up here instead: https://luma.com/sjxszq4s

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