| ??? 05/03/07 13:49 Read: times |
#138544 - devices/boards rather than bitstream Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Erik Malund said:
[...] I would, instead send them a couple of samples of read protected devices. I would go further in this direction, and offer a subboard containing the locked FPGA, maybe even with an adapter to fit into a "standard" socket (DIP40/PLCC44). This all in order to enhance the "out of the box experience". Not every prospectous client of you will be able (or willing) to program the FPGA and design the PCB and solder the thousands of fine pitched pins. To try the "new chip", they need to write software anyway, so why not reducing at least the work which is not absolutely necessary. Well, certainly not for free... but, as you want to "give away the bitstream" anyway, I'd charge for the nominal value of hardware only. Erik Malund said:
The above is not my nature, do not worry, but I could see myself thinking "I would like to experiment with a '51 that had DMA for some I/O, to see what coding efficiencies I could squeeze out of such a device that would not need ISRs." This brings in your side of the problem, Lynn, you would need to have a very extensive set of peripherals readily available - I bet you have much of it already, but to make it really useful, you'll need perhaps to look around for the specialties, too (or at least offer them as a not-so-on-line option). This is a nice example: is your design DMA-ready? JW PS. Have you seen the "kitchen sink" (and also, the "kitchen drain", of course :-) ) thread? |
