Actually we are using Actel devices, which are flash programmed rather than
being loaded from an external source. Very necessary in our application. When
I wanted to do something at home, I bought a very cheap development board. Same
for the microcontroller, I just bought an Arduino. All the FPGA manufacturers
sell those, along with umpteen third party suppliers, because I can't be
bothered with attempting surface mount soldering at home, or making PCBs. It
doesn't really cost any more, when you consider all the work involved. But for
analogue stuff, and audio in particular, I would always use an online PCB
service to supply a 2 or 4 layer board. No surface mount components there,
except decoupling capacitors and simple ICs, because the physical mounting of
SMD components to the PCB turns resistors into strain gauges and capacitors into
microphones. Many designers don't know why their products perform so poorly, but
that is one reason. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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