ON THE ONE HAND..... The comment you replied to said "with a given ISA, how custom can the uarch be", implying that it would not be very custom. You replied,

ON THE ONE HAND..... The comment you replied to said "with a given ISA, how custom can the uarch be", implying that it would not be very custom. You replied, in your first paragraph, that on the contrary, it could be pretty custom, with the implication being that it probably would be, because that's the value proposition that Ampere is presumably offering. So your paragraph 1 is suggesting that the sentence "Ampere will now use a custom uarch" is an argument that Ampere's custom arch might well be pretty highly customized. ON THE OTHER HAND.... Your second paragraph points out that simply being custom is a social signal (the signal of being, in your words, "that you mean business rather than just going the well-trodden path"). You argue (and I agree) that this social signal might make you more attractive to some customers. I.e. the signal might increase sales. This implies that it would be reasonable for Ampere to spend a certain amount on a barely-custom custom uarch, purely for sales/marketting reasons, as long as it didn't substantially harm performance. You know, because of the implication. So your paragraph 2 is suggesting that the sentence "Ampere will now use a custom uarch" is NOT an argument that Ampere's custom arch has any particular need to be highly customized.