Re: If you really want Free firmware...

[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>]

* Kenneth Pronovici 

| I think what you're forgetting (or at least ignoring) is that designing
| hardware is not exactly like designing software.  The process is
| similar, yes, but it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.  At the
| least, this is because testing your hardware "implementation" is not
| "free" (as in beer).   Nor am I aware of many free (or even cheap)
| hardware development tools or "environments".

You can get microcontroller development boards with a handfull of ICs
off atmel for around 30-40 euros.  Etching 12x8cm boards costs you a
couple of Euros and you can get a lot done without going that far,
even, but just soldering stuff.  Not free, but cheap enough that «it's
too expensive» isn't a real argument.

FPGA equipment is on the same magnitude of cost -- still a bit off
«thousands of dollars»

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen                                                        ,''`.
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are      : :' :
                                                                      `. `' 
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