Plea for help - 29PL141

[Jonathan Bromley]

hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

For a fun project, and also on behalf of someone who
asked me about it, I was hoping to mimic the functionality
of the AMD 29PL141 programmable state machine (vintage ~1988)
in an FPGA of some kind. But my old copy of the '141 data sheet
has gone missing, probably lost in one of my rare and often
disastrous domestic-rubbish purges.

Does anyone have a copy, somewhere in their archives, that they
could let me see by some means or other? There doesn't seem
to be a copy of it anywhere on the web, which is not surprising
because it wasn't very long-lived and it was POPped (*) long
before the days of web-published data sheets.

(POP: Planned Obsolescence Program, euphemism for dropping a
part from your product line and consequently dropping a few
customers in the fertilizer)

Thanks in advance
--

Jonathan Bromley, Consultant

DOULOS - Developing Design Know-how
VHDL * Verilog * SystemC * Perl * Tcl/Tk * Verification * Project Services

Doulos Ltd. Church Hatch, 22 Market Place, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 1AW, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1425 471223 mail: jonathan.bromley@doulos.com
Fax: +44 (0)1425 471573 Web: http://www.doulos.com

The contents of this message may contain personal views which
are not the views of Doulos Ltd., unless specifically stated.

 

[Bob Perlman]

Jonathan -

If for some reason Philip Freidin doesn't see your post, send him an
e-mail. He was the father of the 29PL141.

Bob Perlman
Cambrian Design Works

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:16:17 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley"
<jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote:

hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

For a fun project, and also on behalf of someone who
asked me about it, I was hoping to mimic the functionality
of the AMD 29PL141 programmable state machine (vintage ~1988)
in an FPGA of some kind. But my old copy of the '141 data sheet
has gone missing, probably lost in one of my rare and often
disastrous domestic-rubbish purges.

Does anyone have a copy, somewhere in their archives, that they
could let me see by some means or other? There doesn't seem
to be a copy of it anywhere on the web, which is not surprising
because it wasn't very long-lived and it was POPped (*) long
before the days of web-published data sheets.

(POP: Planned Obsolescence Program, euphemism for dropping a
part from your product line and consequently dropping a few
customers in the fertilizer)

Thanks in advance

 

[Jonathan Bromley]

"Bob Perlman" <bobsrefusebin@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:csp13016toguahpob0fnon53r1jjms0qm1@4ax.com...

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:16:17 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley"
jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote:
hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

If for some reason Philip Freidin doesn't see your post, send him an
e-mail. He was the father of the 29PL141.

OK, I give in. Is there some kind of ex-AMD conspiracy
going on here? I already know that Peter Alfke was with
AMD for a while; Bob, unless I'm much mistaken, I attended
your presentation on proposals for the 29050 CPU at an AMD
FAE meeting; now you tell me about Philip Freidin... Will
all those who are *not* AMD alumni please stand up?
--
Jonathan Bromley, Consultant

DOULOS - Developing Design Know-how
VHDL * Verilog * SystemC * Perl * Tcl/Tk * Verification * Project Services

Doulos Ltd. Church Hatch, 22 Market Place, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 1AW, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1425 471223 mail: jonathan.bromley@doulos.com
Fax: +44 (0)1425 471573 Web: http://www.doulos.com

The contents of this message may contain personal views which
are not the views of Doulos Ltd., unless specifically stated.

 

[Bob Perlman]

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:22:27 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley"
<jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote:

"Bob Perlman" <bobsrefusebin@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:csp13016toguahpob0fnon53r1jjms0qm1@4ax.com...

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:16:17 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley"
jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote:
hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

If for some reason Philip Freidin doesn't see your post, send him an
e-mail. He was the father of the 29PL141.

OK, I give in. Is there some kind of ex-AMD conspiracy
going on here? I already know that Peter Alfke was with
AMD for a while; Bob, unless I'm much mistaken, I attended
your presentation on proposals for the 29050 CPU at an AMD
FAE meeting; now you tell me about Philip Freidin... Will
all those who are *not* AMD alumni please stand up?

I believe it was Jerry Sanders who said in the early 70's that in the
future, everyone would work at AMD for 15 minutes. It took me 6-1/2
years, but I finally fulfilled the 15-minute work requirement.

By the way, there's an excellent AMD alumni Web site here:
http://www.flamesite.org/

Bob Perlman
Cambrian Design Works

 

[Peter Alfke]

Jonathan, don't get too impatient too fast. Today is a holiday in this
part of the world, where we celebrate the birthday of that great leader
who liberated us from the Brits. So most of us are out carousing.
I have the 29PL141 Handbook in my hot little hand ( hundreds of pages,
including assembler and app notes).
I could easily fax you the 6-page data sheet, it you send me your fax#.

Cheers
Peter Alfke
==========================
Jonathan Bromley wrote:

"Bob Perlman" <bobsrefusebin@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:csp13016toguahpob0fnon53r1jjms0qm1@4ax.com...

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:16:17 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley"
jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote:
hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

If for some reason Philip Freidin doesn't see your post, send him an
e-mail. He was the father of the 29PL141.

OK, I give in. Is there some kind of ex-AMD conspiracy
going on here? I already know that Peter Alfke was with
AMD for a while; Bob, unless I'm much mistaken, I attended
your presentation on proposals for the 29050 CPU at an AMD
FAE meeting; now you tell me about Philip Freidin... Will
all those who are *not* AMD alumni please stand up?
--
Jonathan Bromley, Consultant

DOULOS - Developing Design Know-how
VHDL * Verilog * SystemC * Perl * Tcl/Tk * Verification * Project Services

Doulos Ltd. Church Hatch, 22 Market Place, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 1AW, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1425 471223 mail: jonathan.bromley@doulos.com
Fax: +44 (0)1425 471573 Web: http://www.doulos.com

The contents of this message may contain personal views which
are not the views of Doulos Ltd., unless specifically stated.

 

[Philip Freidin]

On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:22:27 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley" <jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote:

"Bob Perlman" <bobsrefusebin@hotmail.com> wrote in message
On Mon, 16 Feb 2004 10:16:17 -0000, "Jonathan Bromley" wrote:
hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

Check, I got the grey hair (so does Bob and Peter)

If for some reason Philip Freidin doesn't see your post, send him an
e-mail.

No need, here I am

OK, I give in. Is there some kind of ex-AMD conspiracy
going on here? I already know that Peter Alfke was with
AMD for a while; Bob, unless I'm much mistaken, I attended
your presentation on proposals for the 29050 CPU at an AMD
FAE meeting; now you tell me about Philip Freidin... Will
all those who are *not* AMD alumni please stand up?

Yes, there is a conspiracy. Live with it.

He was the father of the 29PL141.

As it turns out, I was the step father of the 29PL141, which I inherited
from Arthur Khu (also now at Xilinx), when AMD had one of its quarterly
company wide reorganizations. The 29PL141 was born in the PAL group, and
I believe Arthur and Om Agrawal were the real parents. I was the product
planning manager for microcoded products (29xx (bit slice) and 293xx
(word slice)) and the powers that be felt that it belonged with the other
microcoded products. There were several other family members: 29PL142,
29CPL151, 29CPL142, 29CPL153, 29PL144, 29CPL154, 29BCPL164. I was father
or co-father of these.

For a fun project, and also on behalf of someone who
asked me about it, I was hoping to mimic the functionality
of the AMD 29PL141 programmable state machine (vintage ~1988)
in an FPGA of some kind. But my old copy of the '141 data sheet
has gone missing, probably lost in one of my rare and often
disastrous domestic-rubbish purges.

Does anyone have a copy, somewhere in their archives, that they
could let me see by some means or other? There doesn't seem
to be a copy of it anywhere on the web, which is not surprising
because it wasn't very long-lived and it was POPped (*) long
before the days of web-published data sheets.

I have a spare copy of the Am29PL100 handbook that contains detailed
info on the architecture, and applications examples. It has pretty much
everything ever published about the products, except the data sheet.
I'll gladly send it to you if you pay the postage.

Separately, I have emailed you a copy of the assembler and simulator,
and the text files that go with them. Maybe that is sufficient for
your project.

Philip





Philip Freidin
Fliptronics

 

[Hal Murray]

I believe Arthur and Om Agrawal were the real parents. I was the product
planning manager for microcoded products (29xx (bit slice) and 293xx

Interesting timing.

Due to another thread, I pulled out an old board to check the
date code on a XC3020. It says 8833

That board has a 29C116 - a nice chip for I/O controllers that
need some smarts to follow control blocks and such.

--
The suespammers.org mail server is located in California. So are all my
other mailboxes. Please do not send unsolicited bulk e-mail or unsolicited
commercial e-mail to my suespammers.org address or any of my other addresses.
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.

 

[Jonathan Bromley]

"Jonathan Bromley" <jonathan.bromley@doulos.com> wrote in
message news:c0q5c8$8ar$1$8302bc10@news.demon.co.uk...

hi PLD gurus - especially those with grey hair

Thanks to everyone for the entertaining and helpful
responses. Much appreciated.
--
Jonathan Bromley, Consultant

DOULOS - Developing Design Know-how
VHDL * Verilog * SystemC * Perl * Tcl/Tk * Verification * Project Services

Doulos Ltd. Church Hatch, 22 Market Place, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 1AW, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1425 471223 mail: jonathan.bromley@doulos.com
Fax: +44 (0)1425 471573 Web: http://www.doulos.com

The contents of this message may contain personal views which
are not the views of Doulos Ltd., unless specifically stated.

 

[Brian Davis]

Philip wrote:

OK, I give in. Is there some kind of ex-AMD
conspiracy going on here? <snip

Yes, there is a conspiracy. Live with it.

For further evidence of this insidious conspiracy,

consider this recent ebay listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2595421628&category=50913

" PGA Tutorial and Design Tools!
" This is from 1988, during the time that AMD was in
" the PGA/LCA business along with Xilinx

Brian

 

[Eric Smith]

brimdavis@aol.com (Brian Davis) writes:

For further evidence of this insidious conspiracy,
consider this recent ebay listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2595421628&category=50913

Wish I had seen that! I desperately need the development software (XACT)
for 2064 and 2018 parts in order to do some maintenance on a client design.
The client aparently lost the development tools years ago. They'd like
to convince customers to buy new hardware, but the customers have a
maintenance contract so my client would have to pay for the new hardware.