[LoveMortuus]

Would having an open source chip with a rolling release be more secure? Like as soon as the vulnerability is discovered you would push the fix and the next generations would already be fixed. Or would such frequent changes to the chip design be to difficult to mass produce, due to having to modify the production process?

This is coming from a point of view that Linux is quite a success and thus maybe the same philosophy could be used for hardware?

[HPsquared]

Hardware is different in that it can't be updated once it's leaves the factory and has to be "right first time".

[jaywalk]

Not quite true: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Microcode

[unionpivo]

first you have to have open source chip, and then have fabs willing to want to make it (and someone willing to pay them up front), and have phone makers want to use it..

And no changing chips every few months possibly breaking compatibility (people working around your bugs) is not a feature that a lot of hw designers want.

This may change eventually. I have high hopes for RISC V but we will see