Hi Antti,

back from New Zealand?

Thank you for saying this, 100% ACK. (I didn't dare to say as I offer a 
"competing" core -> ERIC5, www.entner-electronics.com ) Generally I think 
that Soft-Core-CPUs in FPGAs make only sense when they are tailored for that 
application, otherwise price / performance will never fit.

Regards,

Thomas

"Antti Lukats" <antti@openchip.org> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:dm5eiu$l36$1@online.de...
> Hi Group,
>
> from "Actel is bringing ARM7 to the masses with no upfront licensing fees 
> and no royalties" - this is totally nonsense!
>
> I have been trying to buy 1 sample ARM7 ready device from Actel for some 
> time now, calling them and asking all over again. They claim that ARM 
> ready PA3 silicon is available, but pricing? As soon as I try to ask the 
> prices they will start to explain the licensing policy.
>
> So the best pricing I have gotten is:
>
> "if you buy 100,000 then for the 'ARM ready' feature the additional price 
> per FPGA is 1 USD, for smaller quanties the additional pricing has to 
> 'scaled' down"
>
> ...I can do the math I think.
>
> Actel has failed to give any prices at all for any ARM ready silicon 
> (other than the quote above).
>
> Smallest PA3 that could be ARM ready is 250 device, where the ARM would 
> occupy 98,2% meaning its actually fully unuseable.
>
> Smallest PA3 where ARM use would make sense as of resource utilization is 
> the 600 device, what is targetterd to be available in Q1...
>
> ... year 2007
>
> So the only PA3 that is ARM ready and available now is PA3 -1000, 
> available means that it is claimed to be available, 4+ weeks lead time is 
> to added in any case.
>
> Not to mention that the website downloadable ARM Core integrator tool is 
> not FREE but time limited for 45 Days (sale price not known!) and that the 
> current version does not allow any user IP cores to be added to the ARM 
> SoC !!! This is promised in next release. That will become available after 
> the free evaluation time is expired I guess.
>
> Not to mention that the Actel FPGA optimized ARM core runs at bazing speed 
> of 25MHz max.
>
> way to go!
>
> down
>
> Antti's 2 cents
>
> PS Sorry Martin M,.I do say what I think.
>
> 

Antti Lukats wrote:
> Hi Group,
> 
> from "Actel is bringing ARM7 to the masses with no upfront licensing fees 
> and no royalties" - this is totally nonsense!
> 
  I have been trying to buy 1 sample ARM7 ready device from Actel for some
> time now, calling them and asking all over again. They claim that ARM ready 
> PA3 silicon is available, but pricing? As soon as I try to ask the prices 
> they will start to explain the licensing policy.
> 
> So the best pricing I have gotten is:
> 
> "if you buy 100,000 then for the 'ARM ready' feature the additional price 
> per FPGA is 1 USD, for smaller quanties the additional pricing has to 
> 'scaled' down"
> 
> ...I can do the math I think.
> 
<snip>

> Not to mention that the Actel FPGA optimized ARM core runs at bazing speed 
> of 25MHz max.
> 
> way to go!

  Hmmm, Philips offer ARMs starting at $1.47 - and you get FREE 
RAM.FLASH.ADC.SPI.UART perhipherals, less EMC, faster operation....
  What Actel should quote is the incremental cost, of adding ARM into an 
Actel FPGA : Oops, need to upsize the FPGA - say +$30, and pincount, and 
add memory; what I need more PCB layers too ?
  Seems merely someone in marketing thought it was a good idea....

-jg

Antti Lukats wrote:
> Hi Group,
>
snip
>
> Not to mention that the Actel FPGA optimized ARM core runs at bazing speed
> of 25MHz max.
>
> way to go!

Amazing, I've done several fpga protypes of arm7tdmi-s SoCs in Virtex2e
and without even touching the ARM rtl or attempt any floorplaning
it'll run faster than that using XST

-Lasse

Hi Group,

from "Actel is bringing ARM7 to the masses with no upfront licensing fees 
and no royalties" - this is totally nonsense!

I have been trying to buy 1 sample ARM7 ready device from Actel for some 
time now, calling them and asking all over again. They claim that ARM ready 
PA3 silicon is available, but pricing? As soon as I try to ask the prices 
they will start to explain the licensing policy.

So the best pricing I have gotten is:

"if you buy 100,000 then for the 'ARM ready' feature the additional price 
per FPGA is 1 USD, for smaller quanties the additional pricing has to 
'scaled' down"

...I can do the math I think.

Actel has failed to give any prices at all for any ARM ready silicon (other 
than the quote above).

Smallest PA3 that could be ARM ready is 250 device, where the ARM would 
occupy 98,2% meaning its actually fully unuseable.

Smallest PA3 where ARM use would make sense as of resource utilization is 
the 600 device, what is targetterd to be available in Q1...

... year 2007

So the only PA3 that is ARM ready and available now is PA3 -1000, available 
means that it is claimed to be available, 4+ weeks lead time is to added in 
any case.

Not to mention that the website downloadable ARM Core integrator tool is not 
FREE but time limited for 45 Days (sale price not known!) and that the 
current version does not allow any user IP cores to be added to the ARM SoC 
!!! This is promised in next release. That will become available after the 
free evaluation time is expired I guess.

Not to mention that the Actel FPGA optimized ARM core runs at bazing speed 
of 25MHz max.

way to go!

down

Antti's 2 cents

PS Sorry Martin M,.I do say what I think.