The reason is that's a much easier and cheaper goal than competing with high-performance chips. On top of that, it might have an advantage if done royalty-free.

The reason is that's a much easier and cheaper goal than competing with high-performance chips. On top of that, it might have an advantage if done royalty-free. There's one last possibility where FOSS IP built by the CompSci folks might be strung together into SoC's competing with microcontroller products with a NRE reduction by work already done.