Re: Prototyping?

On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 17:47:42 -0500, Ben Jackson <ben@xxxxxxx> wrote:

On 2007-10-30, Joerg <notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Depends. When you want to do unorthodox things a CPLD or FPGA doesn't
cut it.

If you want to prototype with CPLDs and FPGAs, just get a dev board.
You can generally find one with the right combination of common peripherals
already on it. Much cheaper and faster than designing your own board...

There's no reason to prototype stuff like this. These kinds of parts
work as advertised, and are reprogrammable anyhow. You save a lot of
time and expense by designing your actual product, laying out the
board, and building a first article. If you're careful, you can
usually sell it, too.

We only prototype small, tricky circuits, mostly when a datasheet
doesn't have all the facts we need.

Today I'm debugging the code for a new product, a 4-channel DDS
waveform generator with a uP, an fpga, ethernet, and a bunch of
switching and linear power supplies. So far, everything seems to work,
no cuts or jumpers. I'll probably change some resistor values, to tune
LED brightness and maybe tweak a supply voltage or two.

Breadboarding is actually a bad habit. It wastes time and encourages
sloppy design.

John



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