Pragmatic Semiconductor made a flexible version of the 6502 processor (2021)

Pragmatic is very impressive because they're a startup that (a) is building their own chip fab and (b) said fab is much faster and cheaper than existing fabs.

They claim [1] to be able to make chips from a new design in only ~4 weeks compared to the usual 3-6 months required by anyone else, which is huge for R&D. They manage this by using an unusual relatively low-performance process (which is also what allows them to use plastic substrates), but it's arguably a worthwhile tradeoff (in return for slower larger transistors, you get significantly lower equipment cost and lead times). That the chips are flexible is almost an afterthought, I think, albeit a nifty one.

They've also announced efforts [2] toward open-sourcing their PDK, joining the growing movement toward open source chip design.

[1] https://www.pragmaticsemi.com/foundry [2] https://www.pragmaticsemi.com/newsroom/blogs/democratising-i...

I can’t seem to find cost information for any of Pragmatic Semi’s parts, even their high volume RFID tags which are supposedly shipping.

The 6502 seems to be a technology demonstrator that has no commercial application, as there’s no corresponding low cost power supply for their parts. Because polymer semiconductors are only about 1% efficient, it takes way more power than an energy harvester could supply.

There's also a flexible version of 32-bit ARM.[1]

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/23/22590001/arm-plasticarm-c...

16 years before that, I remember this: https://www.infoworld.com/article/2670067/seiko-epson-detail...

Is it OK to flag posts of sites with ridiculous cookie consent UI?