[thetallstick]

I think to really have the conversation we would have to define the terms. Much of the original CAD tooling was open source because it was written at Universities.

Things like: is it enough for one to make any core or does one have to make the "best" core? If it just has to exist that was pretty much always possible. Definitely not the lowest friction way to go. But possible.

For example here is basic MIPS core originally written in 2003, from chapter 1 of a common VLSI textbook: http://pages.hmc.edu/harris/cmosvlsi/4e/code.html

It's just over 400 lines of verilog and super easy to follow. The tooling changes that happened in the 90s made that possible.

I experimented making cores that were taped-out in my University, as an undergraduate, in the late 90s. It didn't cost my University even close to 9 figures. It was definitely a lot harder than now but the designs were also a lot more modest. Things, essentially untrained, students can do now would've been unthinkable then.