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The hole point of a free ISA is that many different people can produce them so that it will reach a economy of scale and chip producers will face competition ma
by nickik 10y ago
The hole point of a free ISA is that many different people can produce them so that it will reach a economy of scale and chip producers will face competition making dirving down price.
Its not garantied to work but its a worty target.
- jeffdavis 10y agoFree is about freedom, not price.
- TheAceOfHearts 10y agoSo, freedom is only for the rich?
- gaius 10y agoIn business there is no "cheap" or "expensive". There is only "worth the money" or "not".
- jeffdavis 10y agoFreedom is sometimes efficient enough that it costs nothing to have freedom. Other times, there are real or artificial barriers that mean freedom has a cost. In those cases, someone has to bear the cost or forego freedom.
- comex 10y agoThat's not the point; the context of the post you replied to was people that "claim to want an open-source chip, but end up balking at its price tag".
- jeffdavis 10y agoExactly, freedom isn't always the cheapest or most efficient.
- microtherion 10y agoWith more producers, you get more competition, but LESS economy of scale, and for a product like this (with demand being limited initially), this was already a critical concern.
- Nomentatus 10y agoA point re manufacturing. Still, you get far more economy of scale than a proprietary niche product would have, plus excellent economy of scale re most chip design - where the real expenses are. Runs will be big enough to get most of the manufacturing benefits from scale.