Paul You are quite correct regarding the utility and limitations of Amd and Lattice's offerings.
Like you I have "dead" Lattice CPLD designs. Where clone's won't serve a respin to XO2 being necessary. Best not to ask how long the XO2 licence will be gratis. I was once assured by an FAE that the "cheap" way to obtain IP was as an element of a support bundle : training credits, IP and tools licenses for an N kilo quantity of currency. Not cheap enough for /work. Martin -----Original Message----- From: Paul Koning [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 17 October 2025 12:59 To: [email protected] Cc: Martin Bishop <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [cctalk] Classic computing - earliest years > On Oct 17, 2025, at 7:17 AM, Martin Bishop via cctalk <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Both Xilinx and Microchip have linux builds of their tools. Also, news to me > that Linux or Windows FPGA tools cost money, not for "simple" devices see > https://www.fpgadeveloper.com/list-of-fpga-dev-boards-dont-require-license/ . > > > Note that "simple" devices are pretty complex : Artix, Zynq 030, UltraZynq > 7EV, etc see > https://www.amd.com/en/products/software/adaptive-socs-and-fpgas/vivado/vivado-buy.html Yes, Xilinx seems to be quite good about free licenses for most anything hobbyists are likely to use. > As for PALs Lattice support for anything prior to the XO2's is priced at > legacy support rates, the users are expected to be performing long term > support of obsolete systems (cheaper to pay than redesign) for the obvious > client list, I suspect the tools would otherwise have been orphaned. Hard > pressed to see what else you might use a PAL for in 2025. I used to pay Lattice for license renewal for CPLD design I did occasionally. Finally dropped it when the pricing got out of hand. For hobby purposes, it's occasionally frustrating that somewhat more advanced IP isn't available in hobbyist form. I would like to do a software defined radio with modern front end chips, but they are all JESD and the Xilinx IP for that is only available under an expensive commercial license, not a hobby or even academic license last I looked. And trying to spin my own JESD might be doable but certainly seems quite hard. paul
