Where I'd see a real benefit to this if (it flies) is definitely not in the high end. Everyone having a personal flavor of one of the huge and hideously complex CPUs is unlikely for simple reasons of time and economics. Where the value to this approach is more likely to be felt is in commoditization of short-run and customized microcontrollers and embedded gear. If the cores and modules get standardized and become fair game for multiple foundries, it becomes possible for a hardware developer to put a custom microcontroller out to bid. Standardization and open competition could be real wins for the short-run or highly app-specific embedded systems jockey. Instead of having to modify his design for a ColdFire core, or tweak it for an SH3 family core, he can call to the standard modules. Then Motorola, Hitachi, or (more likely) the smaller fabs running prior generation lines for custom work can all sub bids for the job. The designer wins, the customer wins.
So how does one make a pairing between the standardized chip core elements and OS driver libraries to link into the RTOS of choice, so bootstrapping the RTOS on the custom chip can be made easier?
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Where I'd see a real benefit to this if (it flies) is definitely not in the high end. Everyone having a personal flavor of one of the huge and hideously complex CPUs is unlikely for simple reasons of time and economics. Where the value to this approach is more likely to be felt is in commoditization of short-run and customized microcontrollers and embedded gear. If the cores and modules get standardized and become fair game for multiple foundries, it becomes possible for a hardware developer to put a custom microcontroller out to bid. Standardization and open competition could be real wins for the short-run or highly app-specific embedded systems jockey. Instead of having to modify his design for a ColdFire core, or tweak it for an SH3 family core, he can call to the standard modules. Then Motorola, Hitachi, or (more likely) the smaller fabs running prior generation lines for custom work can all sub bids for the job. The designer wins, the customer wins. So how does one make a pairing between the standardized chip core elements and OS driver libraries to link into the RTOS of choice, so bootstrapping the RTOS on the custom chip can be made easier?