> because "it's open source". Except it's really not as only the instruction set is "open source" There are multiple cores available under permissive licenses

> because "it's open source". Except it's really not as only the instruction set is "open source" There are multiple cores available under permissive licenses all the way through to ASIC or FPGA implementation. There is also quite a bit of academic research happening now, which may not be formally open source but is shared and published. > even that doesn't really mean much as interfaces have dubious copyright protection There's a big difference between "given a license to use this" and "might not get sued, or at least might win if we do, if we use this without permission."