Re: [oc] Volunteer for GPL'd CAD tool

[cottons@concmp.com]

Hi MoT,

I'd also love to work on open hardware design tools.  I'm personally
not hopeful that vendors would release bitstream formats, but there is
a possible solution for Xilinx devices.

Xilinx has a java library called JBits, which provides a programatic
interface for building bitstreams.  I think it would be realistic to
build a backend place/route tool with JBits.  Unfortunately I haven't
had a chance to play with it very much, since it doesn't support any
of the older Xilinx parts I have on my prototyping boards.

	- Cotton