The quick answer to your question is: don't.

To start, ASIC is a standalone integrated circuit, and you seem to be aiming at markets where the PCB space is at prime. The real estate on these boards is rather expensive, and no one will add an extra IC just because.

Second, forget about "C" to "HDL" - you seem to misundestand how hardware works. So you have an algorithm, and you have implemented it in "C", but the implementation approach for hardware is probably something very very different, if you want to do it efficiently. Unless you want a co-processor implementing the algorithm, you may need to rethink the implementation from scratch.

Also, why do you need an hardware implementation at all ? Is it for performance issues? For power efficency issues ?

In case you overcome the second point, and you find a proper way to implement things in hardware, I'd suggest to grab some CPU+FPGA fabric device (a Xilinx Zynq or an Intel Cyclone 10) and implement a mixed software-hardware demonstration. Once you get that, try selling the IP core (HDL) and the software glue to SoC manufacturers (although the SoC real estate is also expensive, but you might be luckier).

Alvie

QMMP is more close to Winamp than Spin. And works very well in my opinion.
And it's open-source and cross-platform.

http://qmmp.ylsoftware.com/

Not IT, still it fits:

A programmer is at home, and tells his wife: "Hey, going out to grab some bread. Anything you need ?". She replies: "Oh, yes, if they have eggs please bring 6". So he goes, and returns after a short while with 6 freshly made bread.
She asks "Why did you bring 6 bread ? We're only two.". And he replies "They had eggs".

I fail to see why you claim RSS is decentralized. Every feed is fetched from a single source (as an XML file if I recall well), and as such is subject to the publisher rules.

Care to elaborate a bit more ?

Alvie

Who said it was safe ? No one said it was safe, as far as I can tell. Obviously, it's not safe. Air (with its pollutants) is not safe as well.

You can find some info here about the base components of the vaping fluid:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.drugs.com%2Finactive...
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-...

Alvie

I could not agree more with all you said. Thanks for the added information, it's rather helpful coming from a long-time (like me, 31 years) smoker, although I did smoke much more than you, mostly hand-rolled tobbaco, but more close to 2-3 packs a day - about 25g/day.

Alvie

Vaper here. For about 3 months now.

I make my own vaping fluid. It's composed of "pure" VG (VEGETABLE GLYCERIN) and "PG" (PROPYLENE GLYCOL), with added Nicotine and some flavours. PG, VG and nicotine come from reliable, trusted sources, and have no additives whatsoever. Aroma is more complex, but you can live without it if you do not trust its components, although most are at least accepted as food addictives, so should be safe.

To be honest, the way they put it really looks like they are funded by the Big Guys.

All I can say is for the last two months or so I feel much more healthy, no more morning coughs, I already reduced my nicotine intake for more than 50%. I tend to vape a lot, though, but as long as my sources do not lie about the base components (VG and PG) I should be way safer.

There are no such things as "addictives", unless they mean aroma. And again, those, if coming from a reliable, trusted source, should be safe.

Alvie

IT industry favors low-cost instead of high-cost. It has nothing to do with age. It's money talk.

Experienced technicians and engineers are costly, but may well prove cheaper if job requires high specialization, know-how and fast deployment of solutions.

It's not like senior staff does not adapt to new techs. It does, and it does it well, but at a higher cost (and overall quality is much higher too).

Alvie

Move the entire world to the DHL approach: cars can only turn right, never left (swap for left-driving countries). And voilá, your problem is solved without the need for roundabouts or traffic lights.

Mods, please +1 parent :)

And there is indeed a typo: I should have written "The sixth most spoken language".

If you are not a native, chances are you never heard it. Note that it's not an official Portuguese word.

Some references:

http://www.publico.pt/destaque...
http://invisiblehand.blogs.sap...
http://visao.sapo.pt/actualida...
http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt...

"and "nim" doesn't mean ANYTHING in Portuguese anyway."

It does. You are not Portuguese, otherwise you'd knew.

And, as a matter of fact, "Portuguese" is not an Obscure Language. It's the sixt more spoken language in the world.
Sorry about that.

Nim (*).

We are The Knights Who Say "Ni!".

(*) In Portuguese, "Nim" can be seen as a hybrid of "no" [Não], and "yes" [Sim]. Often used to express "I could, but I won't".

Flash is dead.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.

First, let me try to shed some light on what "hardware project" is, comparing it to a "software project". But before that, let me introduce myself, and introduce what I do in regards to Open Source, and my still active projects.

I am the author of ZPUino, which is a SoC (System on a Chip) targeted at FPGAs although it can be built on an ASIC. ZPU (Zylin CPU [1], which is the "core" of ZPUino) was not designed by me, in terms of its ISA (Instruction Set Architecture). The ZPU core inside ZPUino is however much different from the original ZPU, featuring a fully pipelined design and yielding very very good performance, whilst maintaining the "small" footprint as originaly designed. It would not be possible to design, implement and "ship" this version of ZPU unless Zylin had a highly permissive license - BSD.

ZPUino merges this enhanced ZPU core (ZPU Extreme core, written by me) with a huge set of devices, as commonly seen in a SoC. So we have, as open-source hardware: UART SPI Timers Interrupt LED HDMI VGA I2C, Memory SRAM SDRAM DDR plus many other eccentric controllers you cannot find in regular SoCs like those in rPI. All those are Open-Source, and the HW design is released on BSD license - so anyone can benefit from them even without giving back. [sorry for lack of commas, the lame filter kicked in]

This is a hardware project. The designs are hardware designs, and despite being written in VHDL, does not make it software. You can not say that, since it's not a printed circuit board, and no wires to see, that it is not a hardware project. Hardware projects describe hardware primitives and interconnections.

Still, they are described using languages, much similar to how software is (for example, VHDL is very close to ADA, which is still widely used in the space industry). PCBs, schematics, can also be described in languages (think EDIF) - as well as their outputs (thing GERBER and DRILL). So there is no much difference between software and hardware here.

Now, back to the "cloning" topic: someone said "chinese clone them all, does not need to be open source" - and this is correct. Your design is not protected just because you did not open it. If you require protection, seek patents and trademarks. And if someone massively clones your HW and SW, you're a hell of a lucky guy you made something people want (cause it does sell, otherwise no one would clone it), you just seem to miss the target price point.

Plus, you can for sure give added value from buying the original product. Arduino (they seem to have reach an agreement today) sells their own HW at 20x price you can buy from china. Still they do sell, and they are not bothered by it - it is expected.

If you want to go open, go open and they clone. If you want to close it, they will open it and clone. How can you benefit from all those clones ? That's the big question.

Alvie