> From: Mike Reagan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 10:17 AM > To: 'Protel EDA Forum' > > Altium Limited, an Australian company, began life as Protel International > Limited in 1985. Their initial product was Protel PCB Design. Over the > years > the company has acquired several companies and technologies including in > roughly chronological order NeuroCad (Autorouter technology), PLD > technology
..[message clipped] Opinion from where I sit. A) FPGAs are cool but from the work we do as a design consultant they are not an overwhelmingly huge part of what we see. Maybe we're out of step with the trends. Have to admit we are replacing an expensive FPGA with a less costly DSP in a project we're doing. B) The people who make and sell FPGA chips have a low-cost tools strategy to help promote their chips. I would worry that placing a lot of emphasis on FPGAs, for an independent CAD supplier like Altium/Protel, might be not such a hot strategy. Wonder if this might be similar to the issues faced by microprocessor emulator companies. (Altium should know from Tasking.) The proliferation of JTAG emulators and low-cost hardware and software tools from the microprocessor chip vendors--often given away for free to large customers-- has given the independents a hard time. Should Altium be pushing FPGAs as much as they seem to be? Don't know.... Best regards, Kerry Berland [EMAIL PROTECTED] Silicon Engines 2101 Oxford Road 847-803-6860 Fax 847-803-6870 Des Plaines, IL 60018 USA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
