AVR-Chat

Leon wrote:

>
>
> > Since you're an ASIC guy, maybe you could tell some of us mostly
> > programmer
> > types how to get started in this field. I'm sure we feel the same way
> > about
> > VHDL and expensive tools as beginning programmers feel about 
> makefiles and
> > regular expressions and other unixy traditions.
>
> There are free versions of the Xilinx and Altera tools. Just buy a cheap
> starter kit ($99 for the Xilinx Spartan 3 kit), download the software and
> try it.
>
> Leon
>
>
We should change the subject line if we are going to continue any 
further on the off-topic of FPGAs.
I will say this, though, that will relate the FPGA topic to my 
observations about not wanting to
get into an AVR C programming environment:
The Xilinx IDE is also horrendous for my old weak brain, and it is 
precisely because I have had to
keep up with each new version that I was disinclined to open a new, 
continuing, can of worms in
a C dev system; especially if there is no great advantage to be gained.

Programmers who are trying to be FPGA starters should use Altera; it is 
somewhat easier to use.
Also, programmers may find Verilog HDL will be similar to C in the 
arithmetic coding.
However, new FPGA designers will still have deal with: hundreds of IO 
pin assignments, many
clocks, many supply voltages, many types of IO descriptions;; etc.

Ken