Glossary

The words this system uses, in the sense it uses them.

Drawing

A circuit design: a netlist plus the input/output widths that describe how to read it. Drawings are public before sale and free to copy.

Netlist

The flat byte encoding of a circuit. Seven bytes per gate: one operation byte, then three bytes for each input. Stored on chain at tapeout.

Gate

One NAND operation, held as an ERC-1155 token. The unit of price and the unit of scarcity.

Parts

Gates, in the plural, as a balance in a wallet. "Buying parts" means minting gates.

Tapeout

The act of burning gates and minting a circuit. After tapeout a card exists but has no edition number.

Edition

The number a card receives inside its own drawing: 1 to the drawing's cap, issued in claim order by the registry.

Stamp / claim

Used interchangeably here: the registry call that assigns an edition number. "Stamped" and "claimed" both mean the third transaction is done.

Cap

The number of editions a drawing may issue. 50 for the flagship, 700 for main drawings, 100 for entry drawings.

Foundry / processor

The contract that mints circuits. "Foundry" is the project's word for it; "processor" is the protocol's. Same address.

Series / stage

A batch of drawings released together. Series 01 is arithmetic, the first of five stages.

Raw circuit

A circuit as minted by the processor: ERC-721, no metadata, visible on TapeOut's own market.

TFD

The wrapped token: ERC-721 on the wrapper contract, with the drawing, gate count and edition stored on chain.

Wrap / unwrap

Lock a raw circuit and mint a TFD; or burn the TFD and get the raw circuit back.

Epoch

A numbering of registry batches. Series 01 is epoch 1, which is why edition records read (1, drawingId, number).

Gate count

The number of NAND gates in a netlist. Determines price and supply consumption.