[dorkbotpdx-blabber] Xilinx

[Greg Grunest]

"Legacy" plds.  Ugh!  I feel old.  Does this mean I need to stop programming
in Fortran too?

I did find that Lattice and TI still make the 22v10's also.  You are right;
they are much more expensive than the Xilinx part with less functionality.  

I was just hoping that in the past years the need to put "4" (or 6) separate
7400 series logic chips on a board and then wire them all up had gone away
completely.  It seems to me that for prototyping, having the logic software
configurable (and marginally expandable if needed) would be a necessity.

I still have a tube of PWM -> "1-of-10 output" GAL's that I made in 1990 for
an R/C project that would have otherwise required a handful of chips instead
of just the one.  Ahh memories!  At least I have stories about how "great"
it used to be so that I can bore my grandchildren to tears while rocking
back and forth on my porch.

- greg

-----Original Message-----
From: dorkbotpdx-blabber-bounces at dorkbot.org
[mailto:dorkbotpdx-blabber-bounces at dorkbot.org] On Behalf Of Paul Stoffregen
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 10:45 AM
To: A discussion list for dorkbot-pdx (portland, or)
Subject: Re: [dorkbotpdx-blabber] Xilinx


> Other than Xilinx, what about a 22v10, 16v8 or other smaller device?

Atmel is one of the very few companies still making "legacy" PLDs, maybe 
the only one?

I recently looked at using a good old 22v10 for an upcoming project that 
needs a little state machine clocking around 1.2 MHz.  I didn't find 
anyone else who's currently still making 22v10s, and Atmel's are clearly 
the old tech, where "full" power is 90 mA, and they also sell the 'H' 
and 'Q' parts, and the 'Z' chips (which detect edges and only turn on 
the circuits for changes, which costs another 10-20 ns delay).

They come in DIP and 5 volts, though if you can use the 3 volt (but 5 
volt tolerant) XC9536XL you pay a LOT less in both dollars and power 
budget for about 3X functionality.  You also get in-circuit 
programmability.  But you only get 3.3 volts out... there's something 
pretty sad about using multiple logic chips on the output of a CPLD to 
get the voltage up to 5 volts!  But that looks like the modern way if 
you need to control analog switches and DACs that don't like small 
voltage control.


-Paul




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