On 1 Jun., 12:05, Jim Granville <no.s...@designtools.maps.co.nz>
wrote:
> Antti wrote:
> > Actel is known lying before, they namly claimed that the use of ARM7
> > in Actel FPGA is free, actually the FPGA with AES128 that allows the
> > use of ARM7 costs 100 USD more then FPGA without the key, and well I
> > would not call 100USD "free"
>
> > Now Actel is about to release the smaller Cortex based FPGA (eg
> > another key for cortex-enable), again Actel claim its "Free" - I hope
> > they are not lying this time, and there extra cost for Cortex is 0.00,
> > but if that isnt the case, what is the license fee? is it the same
> > 100USD as it is for ARM7 or is it smaller?
>
> > Antti
>
> > PS the 100 USD license fee has been quoted by the distributors for qty
> > 1. For 100.000 qty the license fee per chip drops below 2 USD per FPGA
> > used.
>
> Hi Antti,
>   Of course, they will say they meant 'Separate agreement free',
> and 'free' to include on the royalty-paid FPGA.
> [ so, you can get FREE into the sentence ]
>
>   You missed one option: Cortex could be MORE than ARM7, it
> is after all, newer and smaller FPGA footprint. => likely more $$?
>
> Still, if it is too high a price, you could always either add
> an external FLASH uC with ARM, or use an open-source FPGA optimised
> CPU.
>
> But I'm sure you alreay knew that, and this was a rhetorical post :)
>
> -jg- Zitierten Text ausblenden -
>
> - Zitierten Text anzeigen -

LOL, yes. I guess Actel marketing can brain-wash anybody explaining
how free the free ARM7/Cortex really are.

agreed, the ACTUAL REAL license fee (what customer actually pays, not
what Actel claims) can be even higher than for ARM7 as Cortex is
smaller those the same SoC has more resources free for user design.

And yes, paying 100USD (or even 1USD) for the ARM inside Actel
"license" where a ARM Flash MCUs cost = 1USD, is ridiculous... but
guess its marketing.

Antti

Antti wrote:
> Actel is known lying before, they namly claimed that the use of ARM7
> in Actel FPGA is free, actually the FPGA with AES128 that allows the
> use of ARM7 costs 100 USD more then FPGA without the key, and well I
> would not call 100USD "free"
> 
> Now Actel is about to release the smaller Cortex based FPGA (eg
> another key for cortex-enable), again Actel claim its "Free" - I hope
> they are not lying this time, and there extra cost for Cortex is 0.00,
> but if that isnt the case, what is the license fee? is it the same
> 100USD as it is for ARM7 or is it smaller?
> 
> Antti
> 
> PS the 100 USD license fee has been quoted by the distributors for qty
> 1. For 100.000 qty the license fee per chip drops below 2 USD per FPGA
> used.

Hi Antti,
  Of course, they will say they meant 'Separate agreement free',
and 'free' to include on the royalty-paid FPGA.
[ so, you can get FREE into the sentence ]

  You missed one option: Cortex could be MORE than ARM7, it
is after all, newer and smaller FPGA footprint. => likely more $$?

Still, if it is too high a price, you could always either add
an external FLASH uC with ARM, or use an open-source FPGA optimised
CPU.

But I'm sure you alreay knew that, and this was a rhetorical post :)

-jg

Actel is known lying before, they namly claimed that the use of ARM7
in Actel FPGA is free, actually the FPGA with AES128 that allows the
use of ARM7 costs 100 USD more then FPGA without the key, and well I
would not call 100USD "free"

Now Actel is about to release the smaller Cortex based FPGA (eg
another key for cortex-enable), again Actel claim its "Free" - I hope
they are not lying this time, and there extra cost for Cortex is 0.00,
but if that isnt the case, what is the license fee? is it the same
100USD as it is for ARM7 or is it smaller?

Antti

PS the 100 USD license fee has been quoted by the distributors for qty
1. For 100.000 qty the license fee per chip drops below 2 USD per FPGA
used.