The Stanford Smart Memories polymorphic chip-multipro-cessor architecture was conceived as a unified multipurpose hardware architecture base, capable of supporting a vari-ety of programming models and per-application optimiza-tions [17]. Backing the architectural claims, our team of PhD students set out to implement this challenging design in silicon, targeting 90nm technology. Now, with 55M tran-sistors covering 61mm2, this is one of the most complex chips ever fabricated in academia.