| ??? 09/21/11 07:49 Read: times |
#183825 - Not huge in size Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Richard said:
I doubt you'd consider a CPLD in a TQFP-80 or -100 package to be that "huge" nor are they particularly costly or difficult to use. Some FPGA's come in pretty small packages as well, though they tend to be BGA's, which have their own pitfalls. Yes, of course they are available in fine pitch or in BGA. But if driving 64 external wires simultaneously, we would still be back to the original problem - it isn't easy to drive a ribbon cable. Especially if the other side have chips that shorts to ground if power is missing. Basically the same problem as having a 144-pin or 208-pin processor control the I/O signals directly. The "huge" part is more the amount of pressure on a single chip to perform and survive - something dedicated bus driver chips are so much better at. |
