Re: gEDA-user: fpga

[Darrell Harmon <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2005 at 05:32:20PM -0500, Dan McMahill wrote:
> 
> >In the project I am currently working on, I am trying to do most
> >of the work in a DSP rather than the FPGA so users can make more
> >modifications without having to install non free sofware.
> >
> 
> Out of curiosity, which DSP chip can be programmed with free (open 
> source or otherwise) software?   I struck out recently when looking for 
> such a beast although I didn't try too hard.  Hopefully this would be in 
> the form of a compiler and assembler instead of just an assembler.
> 

Analog Devices Blackfin. I believe they even funded the port of GCC.
They advertise it on their site. It can be downloaded from
http://blackfin.uclinux.org There is also a uClinux port available
which I choose not to use. 

They still sell their $4000 Visual DSP++ package which I would assume
produces more optimized code. Or maybe it is just for users who are
afraid of GCC. 

> 
> btw, I think altera figures that if you can't buy their development 
> tools without flinching then you also can't buy enough of their chips to 
> make it worth it.  But I could be wrong about that.  But seriously, why 
> else.  Any $$ they make from selling tools has to be a tiny drop in the 
> bucket.
> 
> -Dan

Darrell Harmon
http://dlharmon.com