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Yep. But to me that only changes what the problem is that the toolchain solves. It doesn't affect the social and economic pressures on how the relevant toolchains evolve.

To a certain (admittedly limited) degree the "limited space" problem with FPGAs maps intriguingly to the "limited memory" conditions that early LISP and FORTH compilers spawned in.




More to the point the market for FGPAs is fundamentally limited by some factors.

If you are making 10,000+ units the economics are overwhelmingly in favor of ASIC over FPGA.

(In particularly if you are the first mover that proves the market with an FPGA you should have started an ASIC design in parallel to it because the second and third movers will have ASIC from day one and a cost structure 10x or 20x better than you!)

This keeps FPGA a niche market because it serves niche markets.




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