[al2o3cr]

Getting significant silicon fabricated is still outside of hobbyist territory. Programs like Tiny Tapeout exist, but the available area and feature size are not "build your own GPU" material.

https://efabless.com/tinytapeout

FPGAs are likely your best bet to start out, although large ones can still get very expensive very fast. You can start out by learning a design language (eg Verilog) and testing your designs in simulation without buying any hardware.

[caaaadr]

Makes sense that creating anywhere near parity to current tech is out of reach for most people, that's unfortunate but was worth a shot I guess haha

Thanks for the link to tinytapeout! It looks great to actualize once I have a more concrete idea of a chip design

Simulations are the way to go for now I guess, the most interesting part of this exploration is trying to just create strange ISAs I suppose, so it will be nice to iterate faster in the software plane before going to physical