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Is licensing an ARM core really a barrier in a business/community venture, once you take into account the enormous costs of just getting a fab to make your chip?

I feel like the fabbing cost is so high, that at that scale, the CPU license fee is really nothing.

Correct me if I am wrong. This is coming from the mind of someone who knows next to nothing about how hardware is really made.




I think the bigger consideration is that the ARM IP is encumbered. You can't tweak it and publish the changes you made.


Exactly my thoughts. Licensing the ARMv8 is cheap, getting it to fab is expensive. And the current trends goes more advance nodes will be more expensive. Hence the move to smaller node will no longer be as much about getting cheaper. Until 450mm wafer comes out, which still does not have a proper schedule.




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