alt Hacker News> sometimes … sometimes … sometimes …
And sometimes you need support for multiple IO standards.
I don’t understand what point you’re trying to get across.
But if all you need is LVCMOS33, why do you not use a MAX10 FPGA with built-in voltage regulator? Or a similar FPGA device from GoWin that is positioned as a MAX10 alternative? What is wrong with those?
> JTAG
On our production line, we use JTAG to program the FPGA? We literally used the same “make program” command for development and production. That was for production volumes considerably larger than 100k.
> ISE
ISE was end of life’d when I started using FPGAs professionally. That was in 2012. The only reason it still exists is because some hold-outs are still using Spartan 6.
> I don’t understand what point you’re trying to get across.
My point is twofold:
1. There are many niches. Your main needs are not the same as my main needs. And my needs are poorly met by existing products, so I want to see something better. (And I do buy chips.)
2. All of this is way, way harder than it needs to be. It could be easy, but it isn't. Everything is possible right now. But I wasn't random when I used the dreaded A-word ("Arduino"). Arduino is a kind of horrible product that did not make anything possible and did not really invent anything. It did not make anything really hard suddenly become easy. Hard things before Arduino were still hard after Arduino. It "just" made some things that used to be medium-hard pains-in-the-butt actually really quick and easy (at a little backend complexity cost: now you've got the Arduino IDE around, hope it doesn't break!).
It turns out that is very valuable.
And is what I would like to see happen with FPGAs: make them easy to drop in instead of pains in the butt. All pieces for this exist, nothing is new tech, no major revolutions need to happen. "Just" ease of use.