[microcolonel]

"I hope that in the future there will be laws that will limit the monopoly of the device manufacturers and require complete documentation for the products they release to the public."

Oh god, please no.

On another note though, I'm a big fan of the work done by Clifford in bringing up a full working synthesis toolchain for iCE40; and I'd love for Lattice to cooperate and, dare say, fund the work.

I would program big FPGAs if I could do it with a free toolchain. Current toolchains are really cumbersome, and assume far too much about the designer's workflow. On top of that, they're absolutely insane to set up and activate. I bought a Zybo a few months ago to try their tools out, but after activating the seat I still wasn't allowed to synthesize to my device and basically just gave up. Lattice can take credit for theirs being the least painful; but it's still not what it could be if it were modular and free.

[Andrey_Filippov]

What objections do you have to the requirements to release documentation? Similar anti-monopoly laws already exist in other areas. It would make Clifford's job much easier (so you will benefit too), don't you think?