Wouldn't it be much more usefull, if new designers were taught that, once upon a time, in the old days when your mother was a litle boy, there was this nasty litle thing, called a 8255. It had had a great time for many, many, many years, but now we use XL9500 or MACH 4A5, or what ever CPLD might be in your parts bin.

I don't get the hobbyist/pro. problem. If I spend my spare time, work with micro's for fun, i dont want to be stuck because I used an antique device. If it was for work, I either ave a kick in my but, or I'll have a boss, who isnt worth his pay.

The tools for smallest CPLDs is free of charge, and most of them got a JTAG interface, requirering nothing but a few gates for the programming.

If given a 8255 as a scholl task, most professors would (should) say "yes" to the smart girl in the class, who used a CPLD, and stated why in her text.

But wasn't it an idea collecting all the 8255 stuff in a speciel tutorial, including explanations why not to use the device, and maybee even some abel or vhdl code to implement a 8255 clone in a CPLD


Per