Date: 19990531
From: Christian Diefenbach
To: Multiple recipients of list CHIPDIR-L <CHIPDIR-L@fatcity.com>
Subject: Re: FPGAs and CPLDs
Brian Bornino asked:
I've been trying to search the internet to find out how much various
FPGAs and CPLDs cost. Apparently, companies post the data sheets no
problem, but they don't put up the associated prices. I've tried all of
the popular corporations: Actel, Altera, Cypress, Lucent, Motorola,
QuickLogic, and Xilinx.
I'm just trying to find out how much various FPGA and CPLD MSI* class
chips cost. It is for my senior project at school. I'm also needing to
find out how much the packages cost which one uses to program the chip.
I think they are called Logic Programmer Cards, but I'm not quite sure...
First of all, you're missing AMD (Vantis) and Philips. You can find lots
of pricing information, like graphics, trends, price per gate through time,
technology and so on, at Xilinx Website: www.xilinx.com. They don't have
specific pricing though. For that, pick your choice and go to
www.insight-electronics.com. They start at $1.95 for the low voltage
version of XC9536, up to more than $4000 for the top of the line. Altera is
a bit more expensive for the equivalent gate count, but they have simpler
devices, the classic series, which they bought from Intel.
To program Xilinx, you can use their JTAG* download cable ($99 with demo
board) or an universal device programmer, which can program most of the
other brands, from $400 to $1250 depending on device support and features.
Software is another issue altogheter. I do not know the current price for
Altera's Max2Plus (or wathever they are using now), but it was close to
Xilinx Foundation Series, more than $5000 with VHDL support. I have an
unconfirmed information that Xilinx was selling their complete package for
$2500! Altera AND* Xilinx give those to engineering courses for free though.
Smart move...
Hope that helps!
Christian Diefenbach
