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The mess of FPGA development
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rstofer:

--- Quote from: Ice-Tea on March 28, 2019, 02:54:37 pm ---
--- Quote from: rstofer on March 28, 2019, 02:16:47 pm ---Having spent $200M, how much more should they spend on Vivado to add in obsolete devices for which there is already a free toolchain?
--- End quote ---

And as I mentioned before: how much can it really cost them to port it? I wouldn't even mind if ILA and other whistles and bells weren't supported.

--- End quote ---
Probably multiple millions.  How far back should they go?  If it cost $200M to create an IDE plus the hard part adding more 'hard part' isn't going to be free or even cheap.  Plus they would have to maintain/upgrade/fix/validate (the really big cost) the new software to accommodate devices they no longer produced.  What a colossal waste of money.

They made a business decision:  They had coverage for the older devices and they had a new toolchain for newer devices.  They had no intention of supporting the older toolchain or the older devices.  It was time to move on.

We still have a toolchain for the obsolete devices.  They didn't just withdraw the software, they drove a stake in the ground.  Then they moved on.

I support the decision and I'm sure the stockholders feel the same way.  This is a business, not a hobby shop.  In the end, it's about the money!
james_s:
I use ISE 14.7 on Win7 regularly and have for years, it works fine. I like the Altera software better in most cases but both are big bloated complex programs. This is just the nature of FPGAs, getting the toolchain running is the easy part.
Ice-Tea:

--- Quote from: rstofer on March 28, 2019, 03:41:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: Ice-Tea on March 28, 2019, 02:54:37 pm ---
--- Quote from: rstofer on March 28, 2019, 02:16:47 pm ---Having spent $200M, how much more should they spend on Vivado to add in obsolete devices for which there is already a free toolchain?
--- End quote ---

And as I mentioned before: how much can it really cost them to port it? I wouldn't even mind if ILA and other whistles and bells weren't supported.

--- End quote ---
Probably multiple millions.
--- End quote ---

I have no supporting evidence to the contrary but it seems a bit much. Especially if you put "a stake in the ground" concerning new features.


--- Quote ---In the end, it's about the money!
--- End quote ---

Yes. Of which they will loose considerable amounts if people go shopping on the other side of the hedge because they are fed up with it.
james_s:
If they go shopping on the other side of the hedge they'll find exactly the same situation. I have two different versions of Quartus installed side by side in order to support all the devices I work with.
Ice-Tea:
I'm well aware. But the argument works in the other direction as well: a vendor that supports devices for longer in their latest SW would have an additional notch on their scoresheet while selecting devices which would bind customers more closely ;)
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