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A recurring theme I've seen on this thread is the feasibility of producing customized chips. I, for one, would love to see a processor that can run Linux (with

A recurring theme I've seen on this thread is the feasibility of producing customized chips. I, for one, would love to see a processor that can run Linux (with an MMU), a high-quality audio DAC, a power management unit, and a WiFi radio -- but no GPU or VPU -- all integrated on one chip. Something like the i.MX233 [1], but with an up-to-date ISA rather than ARMv5, and with integrated WiFi. One could imagine Amazon using such a chip in a future generation of the Echo Dot. [1]: http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/arm-processors/i.mx-applications-processors/i.mx23-applications-processors-integrated-power-management-pmu-arm9-core/multimedia-applications-processors-power-management-unit-arm9-core:i.MX233?&tid=vanIMX233 http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/...

simcop2387 10y ago
Yea that's definitely a product I haven't seen much from the ARM side. Most of the time if you've got a the things you want, it comes with the GPU and a bunch of other stuff you don't want because they're all being targeted towards cell phones.
Someone 10y ago
I think the reason that you can’t get such a CPU isn’t that it impossible to create one with other instructions sets, but that, apparently, nobody has thought it be a product that will make them money. I doubt that the licensing cost of an up-to-date ISA is the bottleneck there. Because of that, I don’t see how RISC-V would be of much help there. What would help is if a cheap way to make bespoke CPUs in low numbers would become available. That would enable hobbyists to order exotic hardware. Also note https://community.nxp.com/thread/440796 https://community.nxp.com/thread/440796, which mentions a somewhat successor (http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/arm-processors/i.mx-applications-processors/i.mx-6-processors/i.mx6qp/i.mx-6ull-single-core-processor-with-arm-cortex-a7-core:i.MX6ULL http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/...) I haven’t checked its features against your list.

simcop2387 10y ago

Yea that's definitely a product I haven't seen much from the ARM side. Most of the time if you've got a the things you want, it comes with the GPU and a bunch of other stuff you don't want because they're all being targeted towards cell phones.

Someone 10y ago

I think the reason that you can’t get such a CPU isn’t that it impossible to create one with other instructions sets, but that, apparently, nobody has thought it be a product that will make them money. I doubt that the licensing cost of an up-to-date ISA is the bottleneck there. Because of that, I don’t see how RISC-V would be of much help there. What would help is if a cheap way to make bespoke CPUs in low numbers would become available. That would enable hobbyists to order exotic hardware. Also note https://community.nxp.com/thread/440796 https://community.nxp.com/thread/440796, which mentions a somewhat successor (http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/arm-processors/i.mx-applications-processors/i.mx-6-processors/i.mx6qp/i.mx-6ull-single-core-processor-with-arm-cortex-a7-core:i.MX6ULL http://www.nxp.com/products/microcontrollers-and-processors/...) I haven’t checked its features against your list.