Reply by Ulf Samuelsson●January 28, 20052005-01-28
> >Chris:
> >
> >Atmel offers 32 MC, 64 MC , 128 MC CPLDs -ATF15xx Family for 5V,
> >3.3 V Applications.
> >If you need an 8-bit Micro + FPGA look no further than the FPSLIC ;
> >Atmel has a Tools Promo- 50% off for FPSLIC .
> >http://www.atmel.com/products/FPSLIC/
>
> While I love Atmel's AVR chips, their licensing costs for System
> Designer or the FPGA syntesis packages are way too expensive for us
> little guys as compared to similar offerings from Altera or Xilinx.
>
>
> --
> Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
Get an STK594 $99 (or is it still half price?).
Write two app notes per year, and you have a free license for ever...
It will be extended for 6 months per app note
--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
ulf@a-t-m-e-l.com
This message is intended to be my own personal view and it
may or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB
Reply by Rich Webb●January 28, 20052005-01-28
On 27 Jan 2005 23:52:13 -0800, "Yad" <yad1@att.net> wrote:
>Chris:
>
>Atmel offers 32 MC, 64 MC , 128 MC CPLDs -ATF15xx Family for 5V,
>3.3 V Applications.
>If you need an 8-bit Micro + FPGA look no further than the FPSLIC ;
>Atmel has a Tools Promo- 50% off for FPSLIC .
>http://www.atmel.com/products/FPSLIC/
While I love Atmel's AVR chips, their licensing costs for System
Designer or the FPGA syntesis packages are way too expensive for us
little guys as compared to similar offerings from Altera or Xilinx.
--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
Reply by Yad●January 28, 20052005-01-28
Chris:
Atmel offers 32 MC, 64 MC , 128 MC CPLDs -ATF15xx Family for 5V,
3.3 V Applications.
If you need an 8-bit Micro + FPGA look no further than the FPSLIC ;
Atmel has a Tools Promo- 50% off for FPSLIC .
http://www.atmel.com/products/FPSLIC/
Hey if you go with a Xilinx or Altera FPGA, think of an Atmel
Configurator
to configure your SRAM based FPGAs
Reply by Jezwold●January 15, 20052005-01-15
Did I saw philips? sorry Ive got them on my mind at the moment:)
Reply by Tim Wescott●January 15, 20052005-01-15
Jezwold wrote:
> The two major vendors in the market today are xilinx and altera who
> produce roughly equivelent devices from simple pals to system on a chip
> scale fpga'a with all the design/simulation software provided.
> There are differences in the design of the fpga's between to the two
> manufacturers and my opinion is that xilinx produce the more
> sophisticated devices with features such as 18x18 hardware multipliers
> ,multiple i/o standards and core voltages as low as 1.2 volts they are
> however corespondingly more expensive.Altera devices are similar but I
> always get the feeling that they are always one step behind in
> producing new features.Other manufacturers are firms like
> Cypress,philips etc
>
The one that I know of that's really different is Actel, which produce
FPGA's based on non-volatile memories, either EEPROM or anti-fuse (the
others are all RAM). The non-volatile aspect gives an advantage for
some applications because they are instant-on, unlike a RAM-based part
which must be configured. They are also much more sensitive to the
needs of the military/space/aviation customer.
However, the design flow for an anti-fuse part becomes much more like an
ASIC, with much greater attention being needed for verification because
a boo-boo means burning and turning a chip, rather than just loading up
a new configuration.
--
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply by starfire●January 15, 20052005-01-15
While Xilinx and Altera are probably slated as the "two major vendors",
there are still very good offering from companies like Actel
(www.actel.com), QuickLogic (www.quicklogic.com), and Lattice
(www.lattice.com).
Each have their own postiive and negative attributes. Each have their own
flavors of engineering boards. Some have higher speed units (Actel offers
parts approaching 500MHz speeds), etc.
Dave
"Jezwold" <edad3000@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1105776644.036318.242110@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> The two major vendors in the market today are xilinx and altera who
> produce roughly equivelent devices from simple pals to system on a chip
> scale fpga'a with all the design/simulation software provided.
> There are differences in the design of the fpga's between to the two
> manufacturers and my opinion is that xilinx produce the more
> sophisticated devices with features such as 18x18 hardware multipliers
> ,multiple i/o standards and core voltages as low as 1.2 volts they are
> however corespondingly more expensive.Altera devices are similar but I
> always get the feeling that they are always one step behind in
> producing new features.Other manufacturers are firms like
> Cypress,philips etc
>
Reply by Alex Gibson●January 15, 20052005-01-15
"Jezwold" <edad3000@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1105776644.036318.242110@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> The two major vendors in the market today are xilinx and altera who
> produce roughly equivelent devices from simple pals to system on a chip
> scale fpga'a with all the design/simulation software provided.
> There are differences in the design of the fpga's between to the two
> manufacturers and my opinion is that xilinx produce the more
> sophisticated devices with features such as 18x18 hardware multipliers
> ,multiple i/o standards and core voltages as low as 1.2 volts they are
> however corespondingly more expensive.Altera devices are similar but I
> always get the feeling that they are always one step behind in
> producing new features.Other manufacturers are firms like
> Cypress,philips etc
"Chris Graham" <chrisgr@shaw.ca> wrote in message
news:ITWFd.78893$Xk.41672@pd7tw3no...
> I'm just getting into FPGA design. What are good FPGA vendors in terms of
> good chips, good tools and good support?
>
> Also, if you've used the Cypress PSoC mixed analog & digital chips &
> tools, how did you find them?
>
> - Chris
>
Start here
http://www.fpga-faq.com/
The two big vendors are Altera and Xilinx
Altera www.altera.com
free software quartus2 web edition
Xilinx www.xilinx.com
free software xilinx web pack
xilinx based boards
Xilinx Spartan3 starter kit with a 200K gate spartan3 fpga. US$99
Made by www.digilentinc.com who make addon boards
including usb , ethernet, adc, other modules like Hbridges , breadboard,
wirewrap boards etc
www.xess.com also have boards (amoung many others)
http://www.burched.biz/http://www.fpga.org/links.htmlhttp://www.fpga4fun.com/links.html
Alex Gibson
Reply by Jezwold●January 15, 20052005-01-15
The two major vendors in the market today are xilinx and altera who
produce roughly equivelent devices from simple pals to system on a chip
scale fpga'a with all the design/simulation software provided.
There are differences in the design of the fpga's between to the two
manufacturers and my opinion is that xilinx produce the more
sophisticated devices with features such as 18x18 hardware multipliers
,multiple i/o standards and core voltages as low as 1.2 volts they are
however corespondingly more expensive.Altera devices are similar but I
always get the feeling that they are always one step behind in
producing new features.Other manufacturers are firms like
Cypress,philips etc
Reply by Rich Webb●January 14, 20052005-01-14
On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:32:24 GMT, "Chris Graham" <chrisgr@shaw.ca>
wrote:
>I'm just getting into FPGA design. What are good FPGA vendors in terms of
>good chips, good tools and good support?