Pieter wrote:
>--cut---
>
>>*Are* any of creative's competitors releasing specs for chips that do
>>advanced effects? I understand RME and MidiMan have been quite open,
>>but they use FPGA chips, and am I right in thinking those are
>>off-the-shelf chips with already open specs?
>>
>
>FPGA (= 'Field Programmable Gate Array') chips are indeed open spec (well,
>most of them). But the problem is that the chip specs are no source of info
>for writing drivers. Let me explain a little about FPGA:
>
It's worse than that. To program the FPGA you have to take the netlist
from your design program and then create a chip-specific bit sequence.
How this is done is secret. So you can't program any reasonably
up-to-date FPGAs with open-source software. I have hammered on the
doors of many manufactueres asking "how does keeping this bit sequence
secret help you sell more FPGAs?" but the answer is a long silence.
Nick/
PS: if anyone knows different, please tell me! I've basically refused
to give FPGA practical courses because of this.
