I have no idea. They've probably optimized the hell out of it in ways we can't understand. I mean, I thought about getting academics to cover cost of putting Le

I have no idea. They've probably optimized the hell out of it in ways we can't understand. I mean, I thought about getting academics to cover cost of putting Leon3 or RISC-V on a cutting-edge node where 32-bit would be so cheap FOSS could undercut them. They'd need to do peripherals, too, but EE students always need projects to learn with. :) The MOSIS runs I saw at the time had packaging alone at $10-20 a chip. I know it goes down for higher volume but how low can I get it on a new product doing maybe 10,000/units a year? Well, let me show you how low they get it so you know what your reusable-for-better-products micro would compete with: http://www.microchip.com/ParamChartSearch/chart.aspx?branchID=1014&popular=1 http://www.microchip.com/ParamChartSearch/chart.aspx?branchI... The smallest one is designed, masked, printed on silicon, packaged and sold in 5k quantities at 24 cents a chip at a profit! That's nuts! I can only imagine what the 4-bitters cost. The cheapest 32-bitter I found were 32-bit NXP's at 10,000 units for about 50 cents. So, they're getting there. It's an understatement, though, to say the manufacturing costs are highly competitive in this sector. :)