> Ever wondered why Widows XP is more popular than MS DOS?
> Even for those apps that would be easily satisfied by DOS.

        Nope, never wondered. When a company like Microsoft throws millions,
perhaps billions, of dollars into marketing the result is no surprise.

> Just plain cost of a piece of silicon doesn't matter.
> And even from this point of view FPGA, CPLD are manufactured
> with 0.13, 0.11, even 0.09 technology, not with 0.7, 0.5, 0.35
> like PICs. Thus die space for FPGA, CPLD is much less.

        Careful there Mike, it's far more complicated then that. While actual
physical die space may be smaller in the case you quote, cost of development
and manufacturing is FAR higher. The cost of producing a piece of silicon
using a 0.7 process is MANY magnitudes less then the cost of developing and
manufacturing something at 0.09.

        The fact of the matter is that, for similar functionality, an FPGA (or
other "reconfigurable" logic) is more expensive then dedicated silicon. For
a one off or low volume product this is a none issue. For a product where
every cent counts, and volume is king, this is a BIG difference. TTYL

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