What are some good alternatives (to Xilinx/AMD) for hobbyists / small outfits?
AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
121–130 of 171 posts
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
If those bugs are only present in the Linux port, then yeah, Linux users cost more to support. But if a significant amount of these bugs affect all platforms, then you could argue that a Linux user is much more valuable to them than a non-Linux user because they provide better feedback. Assuming they actually care about fixing their product.
Part of the problem is that Linux isn't really one platform, it's 10 different ones of varying popularity (e.g. supporting Gnome on Debian with Wayland doesn't mean that KDE on Nix with X will work). And it costs somewhere in that 1-10x range to support it because of that.
Most software picks 1-2 distros (usually LTS Ubuntu and/or Fedora) to support in the default configuration.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vivado is an IDE for programming AMD FPGAs. One cannot use it without buying AMD hardware.
Hardware isn’t where the margins are, and probably is somewhat of a loss leader for small-batch users; for hobby users I would hazard a guess that they’re running at around -10% profit on small sales to try and drive subscription revenue multipliers, and for already-paying users this change is essentially irrelevant and will have zero downside impact on sub revenue. Terrible way to run a profitable business if you fu…
Lol, AMD FPGA's the same chip can cost you from $2000 to $10000 depending on which channel you buy it from, or what relationship you have with AMD. Don't be ridiculous. This is an extreme margin business. And especially small time buyers are completely skinned and trimmed of all fat here. That's why many hobbyists are using unsoldered/re-used chips from accelerators or discarded smart network cards, or other second-hand whatever, repackaged in china by smart hands.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
If those bugs are only present in the Linux port, then yeah, Linux users cost more to support. But if a significant amount of these bugs affect all platforms, then you could argue that a Linux user is much more valuable to them than a non-Linux user because they provide better feedback. Assuming they actually care about fixing their product.
yes, this. i don't know if it was the same game another another where the devs said that while linux users send the most bug reports they are also the most grateful about having a game that runs on linux, and all their reports genuinely helped make the game better for everyone. (wildly paraphrased from faint memory) in other words, if you want your game tested and get good feedback for it, do release on linux. maybe…
Personally, I think it's probably best to test with Proton as part of a game development cycle to reduce the overall complexity in terms of development (not that games aren't already exceedingly complex). That's just my take... especially if you want to take advantage of that extra 5% or so potential extra market share.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#125It'll be shit for paying Linux customers too as a large user base of "free"-version Linux users could spot and report bugs easily.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given how many idiotic ideas are ‘patched’ or worked around in software, it’s probably pretty easy. Especially in the world of modern GPUs when only a handful of people at the factory are able to write drivers for it. Hardware vendors lost the plot in the Winmodem era.
Winmodems are a very sensible idea. You know software-defined radio? They are that, but for modems. Expandable to support any current or future protocol, at the cost of CPU time. Why do we like SDRs but hate SDMs? That's an irrational position. The actual problem with winmodems was them breaking the established software/hardware boundary, and the Linux community not having the resources to follow suit. Nothing stops…
It's a practical position. The era of Winmodems was a long time ago, and the hardware was terrible compared to what we have now. Today, SDR is a fun thing anybody can pick up as a hobby. If it doesn't work, I have three other ways of accessing the Internet. If your winmodem didn't work, you didn't have a smartphone or a tablet to connect to ChatGPT (well, Altavista at the time) with and look for help. Then, when they did work, they were really bad because the single core CPUs of the day didn't have multiple cores to have the CPU cycles to run the software end of the modem and do anything else at the time. Which meant if you were running a game (Tuxracer, perhaps? Linmodem support wasn't broad, but it existed) at the same time, you lost. That tends to cause people to not like the product.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#127AMD business should be selling FPGA hardware. The software suite should come for free. If it doesn't then people should not purchase AMD FPGAs. It is absurd that in 2026 you have to pay for such tools. It feels like buying a propietary compiler in 80's or 90's. No one wants that anymore.
FPGAs are mostly used for small series and custom hardware. If you add the software price to the FPGA unit price, it becomes more expensive if you buy, lets say, 1000 FPGAs to ship in your product. Even though you might only license the software once.
It is a trade off, and I have no idea about the state and quality of Vivado. Back in the day I was tinkering with FPGAs, the Xilinx software stack was horrible.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish more software engineers found out how easy hardware actually is.
is there any hope for someone to become a professional in the field without an electronic/computer engineering degree? I'd love to do stuff that I can actually hold in my hand (did some reverse engineering for a usb sound card and it felt rewarding cause I could quite literally hear the success), but I only have a computer science adjacent degree (BBa in Business Information Technology).
You can learn enough CAD to design your first thing in a day, enough about electronics to design your first thing in a week. A 3D printer and an order to jlcpcb.com will get you started. There are a very large number of avenues to go down but those are a couple.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#129Exactly why we zero asic is making Platypus devices open bitstream and all tooling foss from day one...to protect the world against future evil/dumb version of ourselves. https://www.zeroasic.com/platypus https://www.zeroasic.com/projects/wildebeest https://www.zeroasic.com/projects/logik Of course we don't have silicon yet...so nobody here cares. I think a lot of people forget that Xilinx spent $10B+ develop their a…
IDK where it's at now, but 15 years ago xilinx was some of the most garbage software I'd ever worked with. Super buggy, constantly corrupting itself, and this was for me just doing university level projects. God speed if you can get something a lot better for a lot cheaper.
All "software for hardware development" (I'm trying to figure out the right way to describe it) used to be exactly like that. I understand most of it still is.
Re: AMD pulls a bait-and-switch on Linux users with Vivado licensing changes
#130What are some good alternatives (to Xilinx/AMD) for hobbyists / small outfits?
As far as I can tell, Lattice products are the best if you're interested in using F/OSS tools. Yosys / Icestorm supports the Lattice ICE40 and ECP5 devices. QuickLogic also apparently do some officially supported F/OSS stuff for their devices, but I don't know much about them. Think I might have ordered one of their dev boards a while back, and then promptly put it on a shelf and still haven't gotten around to touching it. :-(
The problem is, none of these devices can match the raw performance of the devices from Xilinx / Altera / Microchip / etc. So you're kinda limited if you are trying to do something that needs serious horsepower.