An Interview with Dave Vandenbout - Xceptional XESS Xenagogue
Dave Vandenbout of XS Corporation (XESS) discusses the history and current state of FPGA development, explaining why FPGAs remain a niche tool compared to microcontrollers due to the parallel vs. sequential programming paradigm. He details his modular board architecture, including the Zula and StickIt boards, which abstracts complex peripherals like SDRAM to lower the barrier to entry for students and engineers. Vandenbout also advocates for open-source hardware and software tools, specifically highlighting his shift from Eagle to KiCad and his interest in using Python-based MyHDL to simplify FPGA learning.