Availability of CPLDs

At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would be
unacceptable in a product I am about to design.

Can anyone give an indication of their experiences?

Fred wrote:
> At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
> Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would be
> unacceptable in a product I am about to design.
> 
> Can anyone give an indication of their experiences?


There is a general problem with availability of components at present. 
I've just read that even passive components like SM capacitors have long 
lead times.

Leon
-- 
Leon Heller, G1HSM
Email: aqzf13@dsl.pipex.com
My low-cost Philips LPC210x ARM development system:
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/lpc2104.html

"Leon Heller" <aqzf13@dsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:40338e86$0$6846$cc9e4d1f@news.dial.pipex.com...
>
>
> Fred wrote:
> > At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
> > Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would
be
> > unacceptable in a product I am about to design.
> >
> > Can anyone give an indication of their experiences?
>
>
> There is a general problem with availability of components at present.
> I've just read that even passive components like SM capacitors have long
> lead times.
>
> Leon
> --

We do seem to work in a boom - bust economy.  I recall once, a couple of
years ago, taking many weeks just to get 2 samples of Xilinx devices.  I
just wondered if things were still the same.

Fred wrote:

> At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
> Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would be
> unacceptable in a product I am about to design.
> 
> Can anyone give an indication of their experiences?


You may have to stock a few items.

Rene
-- 
Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar - http://www.ibrtses.com
& commercial newsgroups - http://www.talkto.net

"Fred" <fred@abuse.com> wrote in message news:<40338b06$0$18907$fa0fcedb@lovejoy.zen.co.uk>...
> At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
> Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would be
> unacceptable in a product I am about to design.
> 
> Can anyone give an indication of their experiences?

Howdy Fred,

   I'd be happy to relay our experience, but I'm afraid that you've
left more details out of your message than you've included, and
without some context, you could get some wildly varying answers.  Here
is a list of stuff that would be good to know:

1. What do you consider embarrassingly long?

2. How long ago, and what parts were involved with your "embarrasing
long lead times"?

3. Were they moderately mature parts, or recently released ones?

4. What kind of volumes were you asking for?  10?  1k?  100k?


The short, generic answer to your question is that over the past six
to nine months, lead times have grown considerably on all parts, not
just programmable logic.  "A few weeks" leadtime is giving way to 6 to
8 weeks for many devices, while a few others are considerably longer. 
And that's for low quantity (a hundred or two)... it'd probably be
even worse for higher volumes.

Good luck,

   Marc

In comp.arch.embedded Fred <fred@abuse.com> wrote:

> We do seem to work in a boom - bust economy.  

Well, yeah, that's what you get once the entire playing field is
directly or indirectly dependent on the attention time span of Joe
Average Shareholder watching his daily dose of stock news over supper.

First you get to feel the fiscal year as a slow wave rocking
everything gently, then it turns into a quarter-by-quarter
rollercoaster ride.  Next thing you know, you can't use *any* parts
reliably lest you have stocked up a year's supply of them right on
your own premises.

> just wondered if things were still the same.

Seems more like they're the same *again*.

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

With the rise in defense spending in the US. There is a higher allocation for these jobs.
Its part specific like tantulum caps etc. So you have to do a little research and hope the distributors dont pull parts allocated
for you.

Cheers

"Fred" <fred@abuse.com> wrote in message news:40338b06$0$18907$fa0fcedb@lovejoy.zen.co.uk...
> At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
> Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would be
> unacceptable in a product I am about to design.
>
> Can anyone give an indication of their experiences?
>
>
>

Martin Riddle wrote:
> 
> With the rise in defense spending in the US. There is a higher allocation for these jobs.
> Its part specific like tantulum caps etc. So you have to do a little research and hope the distributors dont pull parts allocated
> for you.

Who told you it was due to defense spending?  My understanding is that
it is all consumer spending.  The tiny parts and memories that go into
cell phones and the like are what is going on allocation.  

-- 

Rick "rickman" Collins

rick.collins@XYarius.com
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company
Specializing in DSP and FPGA design      URL http://www.arius.com
4 King Ave                               301-682-7772 Voice
Frederick, MD 21701-3110                 301-682-7666 FAX

mrand@my-deja.com (Marc Randolph) wrote in message news:<15881dde.0402181116.7956d324@posting.google.com>...
> "Fred" <fred@abuse.com> wrote in message news:<40338b06$0$18907$fa0fcedb@lovejoy.zen.co.uk>...

[snip]

> The short, generic answer to your question is that over the past six
> to nine months, lead times have grown considerably on all parts, not
> just programmable logic.  "A few weeks" leadtime is giving way to 6 to
> 8 weeks for many devices, while a few others are considerably longer. 
> And that's for low quantity (a hundred or two)... it'd probably be
> even worse for higher volumes.

But remember if you get your 'hundred or two' from a disty then the
disty is probably very low down on the priority list for the supplier.
Customers who placed advance orders on a schedule for 100k pieces are
going to get chips before the '2 reels every now and then' that the
disty is going to buy.

This happened back in 2000 with 100nF decoupling capacitors, we could
get lorry loads at my work but all but one type were on 6 weeks
leadtime in the catalogue if I just wanted a strip of 50...
Sprow.

In article <40338b06$0$18907$fa0fcedb@lovejoy.zen.co.uk>,
Fred <fred@abuse.com> wrote:
>At present I am concerned over the lead time of CPLDs.  Both Altera and
>Xilinx have had, in the past, very embarrassing lead times which would be
>unacceptable in a product I am about to design.

If a part is adopted by many companies, the demand exceeds the supply so 
you can't get them in a hurry.  If the part is not adopted by many 
companies, the maker will stop making them and you can't get them at all.  

Right now you can get Cypress CPLDs shipped the next day from Digikey.  

Last year Cypress denied and then anounced that they are going out of the 
CPLD business.  I suggest you go with Altera and buy a years supply of the 
part you design in.


-- 
--
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