Rene Tschaggelar wrote:
>
> Thomas Womack wrote:
> > In article <c00e21$[email protected]>,
> > Austin Lesea <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> >>Steve,
> >>
> >>Quite frankly, I am amazed at how folks think about this. You have
> >>obviously never thought about that computer on your desk, and how it can
> >>be sold for $499! Or even your car, just go price the parts
> >>individually some time.
> >
> >
> > I've often priced the parts for building a computer, and they add up
> > to something within 15% of the price of buying the computer from Dell.
> > Moreover, the price for Intel CPUs in the shop is the same to within
> > about 15% as the price stated for thousand-unit quantities in their
> > press releases.
> >
> > I believe FPGAs are comparably complicated to Intel CPUs, and I don't
> > think there's as much as an order of magnitude difference in production
> > quantity.
> >
> > Is the market volatility for FPGAs that much greater?
>
> An Intel cpu doesn't cost 4.70$ on whatever quantity.
> And the margin on intel cpus is sufficient on all levels.

That is not the relevant point. FPGAs (which mostly cost much more than
$4.70) have a very different business model which requires significant
costs for each customer of the product. Support on FPGAs is very high.
There is also the cost of tool development which is nearly zero for the
CPU and very high recurring cost for FPGAs.


> >>If you have any optimism about your business at all, it would be
> >>best to enter into a agreement and let the disti (and us) know where
> >>you think you are going, and how many you will need.
> >
> >
> > I can understand that attitude for people buying ten thousand chips;
> > but where do you expect people to get the experience with FPGAs that
> > they have with microprocessors, when state-of-the-art FPGAs are two
> > orders of magnitude more expensive and an order of magnitude less
> > convenient to acquire?
>
> The cost is at the FPGA representative, distributing the stuff.
> They get the questions asked.

No, the distis only have as much markup as the maker allows. I have
been though the quotation cycle and nothing gets done without Xilinx
authorizing it.


> >>Because they are a fair representation of the costs associated with
> >>small numbers of parts ordered through distribution to allow for a
> >>profitable business by the distis and reps.
> >
> >
> > But, again, why doesn't the same argument apply to CPUs, for which
> > there are half a dozen distributors in most towns, fairly happily
> > distributing the things for a couple of percent profit margin.
>
> You say it. There are half a dozend shop selling cpus per town.
> You go there, get a cpu, no questions asked, no questions answered.
> They wouldn't be able to answer anyway.
>
> There may be one FPGA representaive per state. And you ask a lot of
> questions. Not because you're more stupid than a cpu buyer, but
> because placing a cpu and applying an FPGA are completely different.

That part is true, but I think most of the expense is by the maker, the
disti only has one support person for any given manufacturer. It is not
that much of a cost burden for them. And they will very much limit the
amount of support they give you if you are not a large customer.

--

Rick "rickman" Collins

[email protected]
Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY
removed.

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