a) most applications don't need 7nm. S3 will do a custom ASIC for under $2M[1], and I've heard figures as low as $100K for a FPGA for ASIC conversion.
b) General purpose embedded CPUs with extended instruction sets are often fast enough for most purposes.
[1] https://www.s3semi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/S3semi_sil...
a) most applications don't need 7nm. S3 will do a custom ASIC for under $2M[1], and I've heard figures as low as $100K for a FPGA for ASIC conversion.
b) General purpose embedded CPUs with extended instruction sets are often fast enough for most purposes.
[1] https://www.s3semi.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/S3semi_sil...