> A more interesting question, is when will we see the first MicroBlaze
> or Nios in FPGA silicon [not as a soft-cpu]?
> They are getting close to stable enough to do this.

True, although I don't see much value in that approach. Those architectures
were designed with FPGA as the target technology, so mapping them
straight to silicon might not give the best results. What's wrong with the
PowerPC core?

> Or, when we will see a soft-boundary HardCopy - where you can move
> only PART of the total design into ASIC, and keep the rest as a smaller
> FPGA.

Developing and testing your design in FPGA and then hardening it just before
putting it into mass production is rather like wearing a life-jacket in the
harbour
and then throwing it overboard as you set out to sea...

-Ben-