As of 2009, more CPUs are produced using the ARM architecture instruction set than any other 32-bit instruction set. The ARM architecture and the first ARM chip were designed in about one and a half years and 5 man years of work time.
The 32-bit Parallax Propeller micro controller architecture and the first chip were designed by two people in about 10 man years of work time.
It is believed that the 8-bit AVR architecture and first AVR microcontroller was conceived and designed by two students at the Norwegian Institute of Technology.
A much smaller niche market (in revenue and units shipped) is scientific computing, used in government research labs and universities. Previously much CPU design was done for this market, but the cost-effectiveness of using mass markets CPUs has curtailed almost all specialized designs for this market. The main remaining area of active hardware design and research for scientific computing is for high-speed system interconnects.
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