From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <744faeaa702bd64c18d9b74414cab0b0@mightycheese.com>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] Any chance of reviving CDA?
From: "rob pike, esq." <rob@mightycheese.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.96.1030305162421.17388B-100000@robin.cooper.edu>
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Date: Thu,  6 Mar 2003 07:14:32 -0800
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> The "historic" papers page on the wiki mention "Circuit Design Aids for
> Plan 9" from the first edition. Is anything left from that project?
> I am starting a digital logic design class at school and thought this
> might be helpful to me.

Someone at the labs will have to figure out if the software can be sprung.
It has not been released under the Plan 9 license.

I doubt the value of the software, however.  It is to modern circuit design
tools what bare, unmacroed troff is to Word or Frame.  Teaching a course
with it would be unwise, in my opinion.  Its interface is too old-fashioned
and esoteric even in that context, and it was developed in a very different
age of hardware, with lots of TTL DIPs and no ASICs, some PALs but no
FPGAs, wire wrap but no PCBs.  Also, maintaining the data that describes
the parts was a pain, and you'd have at least a decade of catch-up to do
before even starting.

There are some nice pieces of software in their, most notably the tool
for Quine-McClusky reduction, but it would be a lot of work to connect
that to modern components and there must be other such tools available
today.

Seriously, I doubt you'd find it a wise place to start.

-rob