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| Someone:
--- Quote from: gnuarm on April 11, 2021, 01:02:21 am --- --- Quote from: Someone on April 10, 2021, 11:29:23 pm --- --- Quote from: gnuarm on April 10, 2021, 05:44:48 pm ---My main issue with Lattice is while X and A are shooting large bore guns at the high end of FPGAs, Lattice is shooting bird shot at the low end, specifically targeted to the mobile market requiring very tiny packages with very fine PCB features. No one is addressing a middle range of easy to use, low impact packaging with other than microscope size parts. I can very seldom use a 1 kLUT device. I typically need more than 20 or 30 I/Os. Now days that puts me in a ~200 pin BGA! I'd like to see a family of FPGAs that encroach on MCU territory. I did see where Altera has Cyclone IV parts in a FBGA-169 package with 1.0 mm pitch, but even at JLCPCB it's a $20 part. That's the smallest part in the family and it has NO multipliers. --- End quote --- Hand solderable parts? ICE40, MachXO or IGLOO nano, cheap small, stocked. You want a hand solderable part that has multipliers? Spartan 3, or the odd parts from Efinix, Spartan 6, or ICE40 --- End quote --- I gave a fair description of my needs that very few if any of the Lattice parts meet. The XO3D does the job, but is not so cheap. Spartan 3 devices are older than the XP devices that are EOL in the design I may need to refresh. No way I'm putting them in a new product. They are also increasing in price. I've never found an IGLOO part that was cheap. Which Spartan 6 part are you talking about? Maybe the QFP144 that is wider than my board? The iCE40 parts all either have too few I/Os or too few LUTs. I have a Lattice selection guide with the useful combinations highlighted and none other than the higher priced XO3D has what I need. The Gowin GW1N-9 in a 100 QFP would be perfect. But they are not well respected by the US government, so it's not a good idea to use their parts in products sold to government agencies. I don't want to end up in a Huawei like situation. --- End quote --- Space, power, price, and performance constrained and you want hand solderable? I'd like all sorts of things for low volume use, but don't complain that big companies aren't addressing tiny tiny niches. Small packages need small connections, you're dead in the water right from the start. p.s. you didn't mention size constraints in the original post. |
| gnuarm:
--- Quote from: Someone on April 11, 2021, 01:22:41 am --- --- Quote from: gnuarm on April 11, 2021, 01:02:21 am --- --- Quote from: Someone on April 10, 2021, 11:29:23 pm --- --- Quote from: gnuarm on April 10, 2021, 05:44:48 pm ---My main issue with Lattice is while X and A are shooting large bore guns at the high end of FPGAs, Lattice is shooting bird shot at the low end, specifically targeted to the mobile market requiring very tiny packages with very fine PCB features. No one is addressing a middle range of easy to use, low impact packaging with other than microscope size parts. I can very seldom use a 1 kLUT device. I typically need more than 20 or 30 I/Os. Now days that puts me in a ~200 pin BGA! I'd like to see a family of FPGAs that encroach on MCU territory. I did see where Altera has Cyclone IV parts in a FBGA-169 package with 1.0 mm pitch, but even at JLCPCB it's a $20 part. That's the smallest part in the family and it has NO multipliers. --- End quote --- Hand solderable parts? ICE40, MachXO or IGLOO nano, cheap small, stocked. You want a hand solderable part that has multipliers? Spartan 3, or the odd parts from Efinix, Spartan 6, or ICE40 --- End quote --- I gave a fair description of my needs that very few if any of the Lattice parts meet. The XO3D does the job, but is not so cheap. Spartan 3 devices are older than the XP devices that are EOL in the design I may need to refresh. No way I'm putting them in a new product. They are also increasing in price. I've never found an IGLOO part that was cheap. Which Spartan 6 part are you talking about? Maybe the QFP144 that is wider than my board? The iCE40 parts all either have too few I/Os or too few LUTs. I have a Lattice selection guide with the useful combinations highlighted and none other than the higher priced XO3D has what I need. The Gowin GW1N-9 in a 100 QFP would be perfect. But they are not well respected by the US government, so it's not a good idea to use their parts in products sold to government agencies. I don't want to end up in a Huawei like situation. --- End quote --- Space, power, price, and performance constrained and you want hand solderable? --- End quote --- I never said anything about hand solderable. That was you. --- Quote --- I'd like all sorts of things for low volume use, but don't complain that big companies aren't addressing tiny tiny niches. Small packages need small connections, you're dead in the water right from the start. p.s. you didn't mention size constraints in the original post. --- End quote --- I also didn't give my address and phone number. I described what I need in general terms as being the mid range without the large BGA packaging and without the micro requirements on board design rules. People have told me more than once it's not hard to find vendors that can work with 0.5 mm pitch BGAs, but they are still high pin count and so more expensive. They test every I/O and that takes time. Test time on the very expensive testers are what separates the low cost chips from the more expensive parts until the die gets big enough to dominate the costs. |
| jmelson:
--- Quote from: Bassman59 on April 10, 2021, 11:48:57 pm ---$20 without the configuration storage device. --- End quote --- Spartan 3A in the 50K LUT size is $10 without config device, or $13 with internal SPROM. I use the SST (now Altera, I think) serial EPROMS for external loading, they are something like $0.79. Jon |
| srb1954:
--- Quote from: gnuarm on April 10, 2021, 02:35:50 pm --- --- Quote from: RoGeorge on April 08, 2021, 11:24:33 pm ---Wow! Looks like soon all the chip manufacturers will become a single company. Does this type of merges/acquisitions happen in other industries, too? --- End quote --- Ever hear of a little company called General Motors? How about Fiat Chrysler Automobiles/Stellantis? The UK had over a dozen car companies before WWII, but ended up with just two or three, I couldn't keep track. Other than Rolls and Bentley I'm not sure they have any now... opps, Rolls is owned by BMW and Bentley is owned by VW. Oh, well. --- End quote --- Morgan is still independent and Aston-Martin is semi-independent of the global conglomerates. |
| EEEnthusiast:
Too many mergers is bad for engineering jobs.. Every time they merge, they identify redundant jobs and fire the engineers who are doing the same jobs in both companies. |
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