Yes, and the fact that most of the performance comes from the micro-architecture. CPU design is all about the tradeoff between size, complexity, speed and powe

Yes, and the fact that most of the performance comes from the micro-architecture. CPU design is all about the tradeoff between size, complexity, speed and power consumption. New RISC architectures tend to start on the low-end of the scale (clean architecture, short pipeline, small die), and if they are successful, move toward the x86/ugly/big/complex/fast spot.