+# Introduction
+
+This is a page describing a proposed mass-volume SoC. It outlines:
+
+* the Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs involved (realistically USD $7m, with headroom up to $12m preferred)
+* proposes a fair market price (around $12-13)
+* estimates a manufacturing cost (around $3.50 to $4)
+* realistic industry-standard timescales (12-18 months).
+
+On that basis it indicates that commercial viability is possible if the
+quantities ordered are over 1 million units.
+Several ways in which the NREs may be covered in order to be viable include:
+
+* VC investors (typically requires multiple LOIs and customer committments)
+* European Union Grants (such as [SiPearl](https://www.eenewsanalog.com/news/european-processor-startup-gets-eu62-million-kickstart-grant) and the [EPI](https://www.european-processor-initiative.eu/dissemination-material/epi-consortium-members-list/) )
+* Direct OEM / Customer investment (pre-orders, in effect)
+
+With enough direct customers, VC funding may not even be needed. This is
+a preferred route that is not unreasonable and has been achieved before
+in the Silicon Industry.
+
+**This is a POWER PI candidate, but why was the Raspberry Pi successful?**
+
+As a dedicated Set-Top Box / IPTV solution, the initial Pi processor,
+the 700 mhz ARM11 BCM2835, was only available from Broadcomm in
+Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ) of 5 million and above. As a
+specialist Vertical Market Applications Processor, it was *not
+available* for use in products on the general market.
+
+The *only reason*
+that it went into the Raspberry Pi at all (selling in far smaller quantities) was because Eben Upton was an employee of Broadcom and had access to NDA'd internal datasheets. Crucially: on
+learning that it was to be deployed in an Educational market, Broadcom
+could not exactly say "no."
+
+In eight years, 36 million "Pi" units have been sold. However this is not
+all the same processor: there are four variants (Model A/B thru Pi 4). Thus
+actual quantities sold through the Pi Foundation of any one given processor
+average only around a million units, each processor. As above: 1 million
+sales barely covers the NREs.
+
+In the intervening years, despite persistent requests on Pi Forums,
+even efforts by the Raspberry Pi Foundation themselves to see a non-Broadcom processor
+be developed and deployed have not been successful because a Pi-only-centric
+processor *does not have a large enough market share to justify the NREs*.
+
+**The lesson here is that a low-cost processor must cover multiple markets
+to be successful**.
+
+Consequently the Libre-SOC "POWER Pi" is designed to enter multiple
+disparate large-volume markets: the Educational and Open aspects
+may thus be considered an essential part of the P.R. rather than as
+major sales opportunities.
+