[For last week’s report, see the post for 10/16.]
Throughout this past week, we started to consider using some of our risk mitigation protocols given that sadly, our communication is still not working. Ali has been working very tirelessly for the past few weeks to get the NOIS II processor to synthesize on the board, but to simply place it on the board has proven to be challenging due to issues with the provided files. We are still looking into seeing if this is feasible, but we also want to be prepared if it isn’t.
Therefore, we are considering 1) using JTAG for communication and 2) placing all of the input/output files in memory on the board. In the Design Review Report, we outlined both of these approaches as backups in case we cannot get Ethernet to work.
We have not fully decided to abandon Ethernet. Based on progress this weekend, the team will meet Sunday night to discuss next steps. We expect debating what decision to make to be the focus of our Monday meeting with Tamal and Joel as well.