Stange how that works, eh? Plenty of individuals around the world and throughout history have written great things -- books, programs -- and without needing much money to do so. I thought the same would go for designing an ASIC. It's built from primitive components -- transistors and the like. It just seems so simple. You're telling me one person, or even (say) the number of major contributors to dolphin, could not design an advanced chip within a reasonable amount of time?
Giving hobbyists the ability to compute anything they want in a programming language with no barriers of cost is pretty powerful, no doubt. And, as a society, we've reaped benefits from this. At least 30% of the internet is powered by linux and that began as an idea in the mind of one person. Still today, a vast amount of linux contributions come from hobbyists. It should be the same for the hardware that does the actual computation. You can't eliminate the cost of manufacturing entirely, but it should be a lot like how you can order something online, tailor-made for you, and then have it arrive at your door with minimal cost. If there's no market for this, then it seems like there's a gap that needs filling.
Giving hobbyists the ability to compute anything they want in a programming language with no barriers of cost is pretty powerful, no doubt. And, as a society, we've reaped benefits from this. At least 30% of the internet is powered by linux and that began as an idea in the mind of one person. Still today, a vast amount of linux contributions come from hobbyists. It should be the same for the hardware that does the actual computation. You can't eliminate the cost of manufacturing entirely, but it should be a lot like how you can order something online, tailor-made for you, and then have it arrive at your door with minimal cost. If there's no market for this, then it seems like there's a gap that needs filling.