Does anyone know if Xilinx, Altera, or some of the others hold key patents in fpga architectures that barr entry of some of the traditional microprocessor companies. I have seen that ST has dabbled in embedded in FPGAs in the last few years, and have come up with their own proprietary embedded FPGA architecture. However, in the end they have abandonded it for 3rd party architectures. Does anyone have an idea why?
Andreas