Hmmm. Below..

At 03:23 PM 5/24/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>You're comparing apples and oranges, to an extent...plus have you seen how
>much IP cores can cost for FPGAs?
>
>With a PIC, you can buy a single unit AND get the functionality you need.
>You don't have to drop $25,000 for a CPU core, $5000 for a async core, and
>then have to worry about interfacing external DRAM. And try doing FPGA
>development with the low-end software and hardware tools -- if you're
>hardcore about FPGAs, you'll want to invest in more than the "web-based"
>design tools and a $100 FPGA "prototype card".
>
>I'm not saying that FPGAs aren't cool and interesting, but they're really
>suited for mid- to high-volume applications still, or applications that
>aren't too price sensitive.


More than that, FPGAs have an awful lot of unused (read as "power hungry")
silicon logic unused.

I'm an old guy, and over these many years of designing products, I have
NEVER found a case where something else didn't work better than FPGA's,
EXCEPT special, low volume cases such as custom test equipment.

More than that, I am not welcomed at Xylinx, having proved that one of
their products had a serious flaw (unconnected CMOS input internal to the
device). I woull look at some other vendors, such as Cypress.

>You really *can* spend a few bucks on a PIC programmer, a couple of PICs
>from the local electronics store, and download enough freeware to do a lot
>of hardware projects...either for fun, or commercially.
>
>Just my 2 cents.
>
>
>-marc
>
>
>On 24/5/03 15:01, "Mike Singer" <msinger@POLUOSTROV.NET> wrote:
>
> > Actually "MSP-killer", "AVR-killer" etc.
> >
> > From Quote.com:
> > ------------------------
> > At the Embedded Systems Conference this week, Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX)
> > announced the release of new advanced features for its industry-leading
> > MicroBlaze(TM) 32-bit soft processor core including Hardware Divide,
> > LocalLink, Instruction and Data caches, and a Barrel Shifter. Delivering
> > 68 Dhrystone-MIPS at 85 MHz in the new Spartan-3(TM) FPGA, MicroBlaze
> > provides customers with a high-performance, low-cost processor solution
> > with the effective price of $1.40.
> >
> > In related news, Xilinx also announced its Embedded Development Kit
> > (EDK) version 3.2 for designing SoC using Xilinx FPGAs. EDK(TM) version
> > 3.2 innovates the programmable system domain by integrating embedded
> > hard and soft-core processors, customizable IP, and FPGA logic into a
> > single programmable platform. With the new version, designers can now
> > efficiently implement embedded systems using Xilinx Virtex-II Pro(TM)
> > FPGAs featuring hard embedded IBM PowerPC(TM) cores and Multi-Gigabit
> > Transceivers and/or a soft processor system using MicroBlaze in
> > Spartan-3 FPGAs.
> >
> > -----------------------
> >
> > By the way, Microsoft unveils $3 Windows CE runtime pricing.
> >
> > I wonder, if super-fast SOC (System On Chip) with flexible
> > guts and Windows CE were priced as low as few bucks, who
> > would buy PICs?
> >
> > Mike.
> >
> > P.S. Hey, folks, how do you think, should a newbie choose
> > MicroBlaze instead of 18FXXXX?
> >
> > --
> > http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
> > ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.
> >
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>Marc Nicholas Geekythings Inc. C/416.543.4896
>UNIX, Database, Security and Networking Consulting
>
>--
>http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
>ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

--------------------------

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