see below, please. regards,
Richard Erlacher ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave McGuire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <sdcc-user@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:54 PM Subject: Re: [Sdcc-user] documentation & open source generally > On Sep 10, 2008, at 12:39 AM, Richard Erlacher wrote: >> Yes, the key word there is "BIG", and I bought some of 'em back in >> the'80's. >> They were mostly rubbish ... hangar queens that were down more than >> they >> were useable. > > Hangar queens...love that term. :-) I'm sure lots of high-end > stuff was like that in the 80s. > >> I'm not sure you're right about the "large-chip" stuff. We seem to >> manage with the stuff from various vendors including Mentor and >> Cadence, though vendors charging 5-10% of what they charge >> seem to offer better products and service. > > Centaur's VIA chips are done under Linux, and verified/tested with > Perl and PostgreSQL. Analog Devices' chip design processes don't > involve Windows at all. Both of these tidbits of info are directly > from friends of mine who are chip designers at those companies. > There are similar tools for Windows. I've personally found that there are advantages running tools under LINUX. At least one tool I didn't particularly like, but which was available under both LINUX and Windows, ran significantly better and, above all, much faster under LINUX on the same hardware. > >> Altera, Xilinx, and Lattice have all made their products available >> in LINUX versions, which is a good thing. They did, however, >> start out under Windows, since that's most of the market. > > They did? The first Xilinx software that I saw in the wild ran > under HP-UX. I'm fairly certain that there was no Windows support > from them at that time. I have an acquaintance (friend of a friend) > who is an exec at Xilinx; I will ask him. > > Two things ... (1) under HP-UX ... a lot of the stuff I encountered was never ready for prime-time, i.e. they gave up on CAE before they ever got it to work, and (b) the first "XILINX" software I had was XACT, my copy of which came before XILINX, having been an MMI product, under PC-DOS, well before there was "Windows" to hate, or, for that matter, before there was a XILINX. When AMD absorbed MMI, they gave up the FPGA line, and spun it off as XILINX. Later on, they spun off the PAL and CPLD line as VANTIS, which later was acquired by LATTICE. All of them had DOS-based development software well before there was a "Windows." ALTERA and CYPRESS had essentially the same software, since CYPRESS, back then, second-sourced all of ALTERA's CPLD's and SPLD's. CYPRESS was ALTERA's fab, back then, along with Intel and TI. > >> Quite frankly, I've encountered no software for design of digital >> or analog circuitry, aside from the foundry-specific stuff, that's >> not available for the PC running Windows. There could be >> some, I suppose, but I haven't been forced to deal with it. > > This could be (I say with respect) a case of "Windows blinders". > People who run Windows tend to only ever find Windows software, > because they tend to look for software in places for which one finds > Windows software. From my perspective, as someone who has *never* > run Windows in any sort of primary capacity, there's very little > software out there for it for any serious applications. > Makes sense, doesn't it? If you have a car that burns unleaded, you don't go looking for diesel. If you ever read any of the trade rags for the electronics design industry, you'll see lots of ads for Windows CAE tools. Once in a while, maybe 10 times a year, you'll see something that's not available for Windows. There's more and more every day that's available for both Windows and LINUX, though. There are many more Windows systems being used these days than UNIX systems. For that reason, if I were a developer of CAE software, I'd target the many millions of Windows-based PC's first. That may not be the "best" choice, but it would be the smartest. > > -Dave > -- > Dave McGuire > Port Charlotte, FL > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Sdcc-user mailing list Sdcc-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sdcc-user
