* Kenneth Pronovici | I think what you're forgetting (or at least ignoring) is that designing | hardware is not exactly like designing software. The process is | similar, yes, but it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. At the | least, this is because testing your hardware "implementation" is not | "free" (as in beer). Nor am I aware of many free (or even cheap) | hardware development tools or "environments".
You can get microcontroller development boards with a handfull of ICs off atmel for around 30-40 euros. Etching 12x8cm boards costs you a couple of Euros and you can get a lot done without going that far, even, but just soldering stuff. Not free, but cheap enough that «it's too expensive» isn't a real argument. FPGA equipment is on the same magnitude of cost -- still a bit off «thousands of dollars» -- Tollef Fog Heen ,''`. UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are : :' : `. `' `-