Something worth looking at...

[Gene Zumchak]

Michael M,

    I had seen this in DigiKey but had never investigated it.  Imagine how
useful this might be if it were half that price, say about $8.  Perhaps you
could put a heated transistor AND the VCO it controls on the same chip for $8.
Not bad.  This looks like it is worth considering.  Even at $16, if you figure
how much your time is worth, and the number of hours it takes to breadboard a
circuit, then $16 doesn't look so bad.  The killer and stupid part is the price
of the development kit.  If the vendor wants to sell chips, why doesn't he just
give the kit away.  The only purpose and use for the kit is to program his own
chips.

Gene Z.



Michael Maloney wrote:

> How about a field programmable analog array?
> http://www.fas.co.uk
>
> I have somewhat mixed feelings about it in the big picture, as the devices
> themselves sell for about $16.00 USD from Farnell in the UK, and Digikey
> (the proclaimed US distributor) only has the development kits right now
> (software, board, cable, 4 chips = $460.00)
>
> Still, there's something very attractive about a linear "toolbox" on a chip.
>
> Was also kinda intriguing that they chose as design examples a
> four-quadrant multiplier, VCO, and voltage controlled gain cell.
>
> Just thought it might be of interest.
>
> Mike Maloney