THese are cheap.

"Jamie" wrote in message news:eJT3q.52406$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe21.iad...

A VW Jetta is less expensive.

Cheers

If you don't have an immediate application for the second, the power supply pins make a nifty clamp diode.

I'm thinking some robot has been imagineering the prices.

Well arrow must use the same robot...

Wouldn't like to blow one of those up!

--

John Devereux

Glad I am an analog guy. Although blowing up an amplifier with a bunch of large LDMOS parts will raise eyebrows in the accounting department.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

At least they have some in stock, unlike these ones:

Might take a while to finish the schematic, with 1,760 pins.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

The real fun starts when you realize that it ain't working and that the reason is that a few BGA balls didn't catch. Of course, according to Murphy's law they are all scattered and somewhere in the middle.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

It doesn't really matter if they're in the middle or the edge. If your process is that poor you shouldn't be attempting BGAs at all, much less ones with 1700+ pins.

Looks fun to route!

Cheers

1.00mm? That's huge! Shouldn't be too hard on 10-12 layers without blind vias (decoupling will be fun). With blind vias it should be a piece of cake. ;-)

I met some people at a trade show who make hardware logic simulators. Each board in their system had 64 Virtex chips, worth about $9K each.

John

No, high-end FPGAs have prices like that. Almost makes you want to start using wrist straps.

John

I suspect a carrier for this layout, just to get the decoupling right. The most expensive FPGA I have used was $240, but it was a TQPF package with 200 or so pins. Think it was the biggest device in the Altera MAX series, or whatever series it was before the MAX chips came out. ( you could do a Clearlogic mask with them) Requirements mandated a static design, no Micro or serial boot eeprom to load or run the code.

Cheers

I designed in a couple of Virtex and Virtex-Es in FF-680 packages (also 1mm pitch), into a test system, around '98. There were no problems fanning the I/Os out and getting voltages in, in six layers. Decoupling wasn't too bad because the FF680 package had a big hole the ball pattern. They were $600, at the time.

In '07 I did a few designs with Virtex-2s and 4s. They were in the $3K, each, ballpark (don't remember the package - I wasn't supposed to be playing with hardware). I thought that was a bit much for what I was doing (HD video camera and some 2-D filters), until I got the skinny on the rest of the system. The CCDs (3-each) were $5K and the prism in front was $45K. Needless to say, it was a DOD job. ;-)

My last "FPGA" (they call it a CPLD but it has more of an FPGA architecture) was a $2.50 MAX-II (240 macro-cells). ;-) I'll likely stick with Altera from now on (price and software), though there are some interesting Actel parts (Fusion).

Think I'll just order a bunch of samples....

...then sell them and retire

boB

If you're talking about FPGAs, sure there are a lot that aren't stocked. My bet is that there are some that aren't even made (until someone asks). Other things, DigiKey does a pretty good job at stocking (often at absurd prices, though sometimes not so).