3 ms·

> The problem is the same as it always has been: NRE (fixed costs) for new chips climbs ever higher and needs to be offset by even more volume to be acceptable

> The problem is the same as it always has been: NRE (fixed costs) for new chips climbs ever higher and needs to be offset by even more volume to be acceptable to consumers. While this is certainly true for bleeding edge nodes, hasn't the NRE become significantly lower for mature process chips? I would guess that EDA tools and a greater availability of IP blocks would drive down the real dollar cost of designing your own ASIC on a node 1-2 generations back.

nordsieck 6y ago
> While this is certainly true for bleeding edge nodes, hasn't the NRE become significantly lower for mature process chips? I would guess that EDA tools and a greater availability of IP blocks would drive down the real dollar cost of designing your own ASIC on a node 1-2 generations back. Honestly, I'm not familiar enough to have a nuanced opinion, but from what I understand, that's probably true. However, in the battle for cloud VPS and PC CPU sockets, using a 1-2 generation old process doesn't appear to be a winning strategy.