| ??? 11/13/06 08:22 Read: times Msg Score: +1 +1 Informative |
#127860 - And times change Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Richard Erlacher said:
Keep in mind that senior engineers went to school before there was 'C' and before there was VHISIC and VHDL. They were working with DTL and RTL if not relays. So does that mean that young whizz-kid engineers have to stick to the same archaic design methods just to respect the elderly? Richard Erlacher said:
I once lived on "evaluation boards" which I could string together in order to build large and complex functional systems in order to prove concepts, and, afterward, tear them down and put them back on the shelf and use them again later. Todays eval boards are like 10 pounds of sh*t in a 5-pound bag, with the "features" always in the way. Nobody is stopping you form building your own small PCB with just the PLD, regulator and oscillator on it. Richard Erlacher said:
If it weren't for the short market life of current-generation programmable logic, I'd just build my own boards. Yeah sure. Just because there are new PLD generations, doen't mean that the 'old' ones become obsolete. We still do some proof of concept on Cyclone I&II boards while the product might use a StratixII or in some time StratixIII. Another project we did the ramp-up on an existing VirtexII board and the moved to a Spartan3. Thats the nice thing about FPGAs, a previous project might serve as a start for a new one. Richard Erlacher said:
The way this thread started, the O/P was asking about how to get started. Well, I've always believed that a board with just the minimal amount of hardware would suit best. Sure, because implementing something like a VGA pattern generator is so complicated and only to be attempted by people that have their Ph.D. for at least ten years. What would Russ want with just some switches and LED's? after some time one can be fed up of all the knight rider blink patterns and might try something new. Richard Erlacher said:
Guys who haven't been doing programmable logic have been drawing schematics with discrete (MSI/SSI) logic and MCU's. For them to abandon what they've been doing and start over, cold, in an unfamiliar HDL is too much "future shock" for them, IMHO, so that's why I've promoted sticking with schematic entry. And thats bollocks! Now it's new, time to learn, better let them start with the way how it's done, rather than seducing them to the dark side where they have a difficulty to escape from. Good for you that you have to use schematics, the perfect way of designing since the dawn of time, but don't enforce that on someone new, who still has the chance to do it right, and pray that he has never to endure the same customers as you do. Somebody who knows discrete circuit design (your MCU projects with the occasional 74 pepper) and then give them a FPGA again with a schematic tool, perfect recipe for disaster. Richard Erlacher said:
It will get him familiarized with simulation, testbenches, and prepare him for the somewhat more murky world of FPGA application. if you've never understood how to design for FPGAs, ofcourse their world is murky. Richard Erlacher said:
There are reasons why I think it appropriate in this context, and there are reasons why I use 'em as much as I do in my work. It's because the meet my needs and satisfy my clients' needs. You say, because you have no choice, and thats an entirely different thing. Why enavngelize something that is plain wrong on everybody else? If Russ wan't to use schematics, fine, his choice, but i say he'll find himself in a dead end. Cheers, Roger |
