[throwaway81523]

This appears to be a new x86 design, but why? I thought there was good riscv-64 stuff out there now.

[RetroTechie]

(Binary) compatibility? Not everyone runs Linux, most software can't be recompiled. And emulation tends to come with a heavy speed penalty.

[spookie]

They are "cooperating" with VIA. Basically, they didn't start from 0.