Rhythm generator

[Curtin, Steven D (Steven)]

Bill-

Not to worry.  The development systems I'm working with are "beginner"
systems.  They used to be quite expensive, and there are certainly versions
that still are.  The Philips board is $100 and includes a very usable set of
compilers and downloaders, you just use the parallel port on your PC.  The
ORCA part is four times the gates and a quarter the cost of the Philips PLD,
around $10 in large quantities.  Marshall Electonics is giving away the
version of the software I'm using, it's normally $95.  It's true that you
have to learn ABLE or VHDL for programming these things, but it's really
nice being able to "undo" a design when you good, just by downloading a
previous bitstream, and knowing this stuff will get you job$.  I'm still
pricing out the ORCA demo board, it's quite old and shouldn't cost too much.

Steve C

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Steven Curtin  
Lucent Technologies Microelectronics
ph: (732)957-2996   fax: (732)957-6878
http://www.emf.org/subscribers/curtin/
sdcurtin at lucent.com
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> ----------
> From: 	WJ Bland[SMTP:pmykwjb at unix.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk]
> Sent: 	Wednesday, April 14, 1999 10:31 AM
> To: 	Curtin, Steven D (Steven)
> Cc: 	'synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl'
> Subject: 	RE: Rhythm generator
> 
> On Wed, 14 Apr 1999, Curtin, Steven D (Steven) wrote:
> 
> > Hello WJ,
> > 
> > This sounds very similar to what I've been doing with programmable
> logic.  I
> > have a Philips PLD that counts down from a master clock which is a 555.
> [snip...]
> 
> Hi Steven,
> 	What you're doing sounds very cool.  Thanks for the reply, but...
> Eeek!  PLDs and FGPAs?  Aren't they really hard to do?  I know it would be
> a much simpler design this way, but aren't they quite expensive?  And you
> need a programmer for them don't you?  This must cost loads too!
> 
> This is just my knee-jerk reaction - let me know if I'm wrong ;-)
> 
> Cheers,
> 	Bill.
>