Re: using PALs

On Sun, 12 Mar 2000 09:18:24 -0800, you wrote:

>as densities and the internal complexities of plds increased,
>companies provide less info on the internals of the parts, and
>charge more for their tools to use them.

        Tell me about it - you should _see_ what Altera wants for their
Max-II-Plus software! (Then again, they're pretty proud of the _parts_,
too.) No wonder they copy-protect the thing six ways from Sunday...

>I was talking to a returnee to Apple from Cygnus about free
>software over beers on Friday, and one place where open source
>hasn't made much of a dent in software prices (yet) is electrical
>CAD. Guess it's too specialized, or you can't get the info out
>of manufacturers to write your own tools..

        Some of both, I think. It _is_ a lot of effort to put into something
that'll only be of use to a very limited audience... and the manufacturers
are very jealous of their logic-routing algorithms, and of the devices in
general. (There's currently a lawsuit pending between Altera and an ASIC
manufacturer, because said manufacturer offers to take your Altera
Flex-part design and turn it into an ASIC for high-volume production.
Altera claims even _that_ is an infringement on their patent, despite the
fact that the ASIC is non-reprogrammable and not at all like the Altera
internally.)
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BREAK UP MICROSOFT!!
(Preferably with a wrecking ball and some dynamite.)
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solarfox@DON'TMESSWITHtexas.net (Gary Akins jr.)
http://lonestar.texas.net/~solarfox
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Received on Sun Mar 12 14:14:15 2000