[Arm-netbook] "smarter" phone

[luke.leighton]

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 2:45 PM, Vladimir Pantelic <vladoman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Troy Benjegerdes wrote:
>
>> So, how many of you will put down pre-orders for:
>> 1) full-open software fairphone (pre-rooted, no blobs, full function)
>> 2) open-source PCB fairphone
>> 3) phone with open source software, PCB, AND silicon layout
>>
>> Number 2 could almost be done today.
>>
>> If there were 100,000 down-payments of $5USD for number 3, I would start
>> negotiations with fabs for (3) and we'd probably have silicon in about
>> 3-5 years.
>
>
> you can make a new chip for just $500k?

 in 90nm, and if you can guarantee it will work so that you don't need
massive validation costs, then yes you can.  40nm you need a budget of
$2m absolute absolute minimum, $5m is better.  28nm would be absolute
absolute minimum of $4m, $9m would be better, but if you're not using
the standard tools then TSMC etc. are unlikely to even speak with you
(they don't want their time wasted basically).

 the lower geometries are even cheaper.

l.