On Mon, 29 Oct 2001 16:50:22 -0600, Bari Ari wrote: > >NSC MacPhyter (10/100) is under $5 and the NSC Gbit Ethernet chipset has >dropped low enough to have cards around for under $100. 10/100 BOM is >under $10 + assembly. Prices have dropped. >
I see the makings of a flamewar smoldering so I'll leave the issue after this: I fully agree that lots of pretty complex ICs are getting very cheap these days. Cheaper by the minute. But raw parts cost are only half the story. The devil is in the details. If you can come up with a P4 BOM with 8 ethernet ports for under $200, though send it to me. I'll see about trying to get them built. Seriously. I'm not advocating that the Alpha in a FPGA would be cheaper than a COTS solution but only that its very difficult to put a price on custom stuff. And more often than not its always more expensive than you originally think. On just technical merit though I for one would love to see a GPLed SOC in a FPGA. That would be really cool. -- Richard A. Smith Bitworks, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 501.846.5777 Sr. Design Engineer http://www.bitworks.com
