For a start,
The ARM instruction set is very easy to decode, that has been the point for the last fifteen years.
Secondly, FPGAs are expensive components, by the time that you had built a workable core, even if
you attached off the shelf cache controllers and so on, you would still be looking at a cost well in excess of a genuine ARM based chip. it would also be slower (FPGA restrictions).
Thirdly being open source you would have no-one to blame, think about that when the engine controller in your car crashes, and blows the engine up.
Fourthly, if you could afford a fabrication facility (and so could circumvent the cost and speed problems) You could afford to buy a liscence, and get a made to measure core from ARM, and still have someone to take the blame.
Slashdot Mirror
For a start,
The ARM instruction set is very easy to decode, that has been the point for the last fifteen years.
Secondly, FPGAs are expensive components, by the time that you had built a workable core, even if
you attached off the shelf cache controllers and so on, you would still be looking at a cost well in excess of a genuine ARM based chip. it would also be slower (FPGA restrictions).
Thirdly being open source you would have no-one to blame, think about that when the engine controller in your car crashes, and blows the engine up.
Fourthly, if you could afford a fabrication facility (and so could circumvent the cost and speed problems) You could afford to buy a liscence, and get a made to measure core from ARM, and still have someone to take the blame.
This story wasn't even worth a mention.