They produced a working Mars FPGA based on their ASIC design at least. That proves at least chip-designing chops and the ability to code it to a working state.
Actually, you would normally develop an ASIC based on a FPGA design and not vice versa:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGA_prototypeYes, but there are certain pitfalls when you go to actually tape-out that takes seasoning and sophisticated simulation software to know how to avoid. BFL seems to have hit these snags considerably. If anyone can avoid them, it's an org such as Orsoc.
Saying that an ASIC company "has FPGA experience" is as informative as saying that Albert Einstein knew arithmetics. There's simply NO way for an ASIC company not to know about FPGAs.
That's basically my point. Just having shipped FPGAs doesn't mean BFL could make an easy transition into ASICs.
You would expect an airline pilot to be able to land a single-engine airplane, but you would not necessarily expect a single-engine pilot to land an A380, roger ?
Indeed. So we'd be calling KNC true airline pilots, and BFL experienced in little more than Cessnas, whereas Avalon is somewhere in the middle to where at least they pulled off shipping.
