[nine_k]

No, as far as I can tell, it's an actual RISC-V ASIC; it has 5 cores on a 28nm die.

I'm afraid the amount of FPGA required for 4 beefier cores + 1 simpler core + 2 MB coherent L1 cache could cost more than $999, but I may be wrong.

[tyingq]

I get the difference between FPGA and ASIC. But...

What's the difference between a CPU core on an ASIC and a normal CPU core?

[q3k]

You seem to be confused about the terminology. A typical CPU core is an ASIC.

An ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) is exactly what it says on the tin - an integrated circuit designed to perform one function - in this case, executing machine code. Most of the chips you see inside electronics are ASICs (everything from operational amplifiers to ethernet PHYs and CPUs).

[tyingq]

I don't usually see the two terms used together, because of the "application specific" vs "general purpose" thing. So I thought there might be something I was missing.

[nine_k]

FPGA is more "general purpose" because you can reconfigure it for almost any purpose. A CPU, compared to it, is more "application-specific", though not as specific as e.g. an ASIC for handling crypro.

I probably added too much contrast into my original comment.