Hi All,
I planned to introduce myself into the world of GALs for more simple glue logic instead of "heavy" network of 74HC ICs. But as far as I can see I am out of sync of the world: is my view correct that GALs are treated as deprecated in general? All the vendors datasheet I wanted to check told me that these devices are no longer produced/supported/etc. I am not sure what can I do now, is it a good idea to build on a top of devices which are about dying? Others told me, that I should learn/work with CPLDs instead. However as far as I can see, CPLDs are much more expensive ICs than simple GALs (and a simple GAL is enough for me!) also I couldn't find hobby friendly DIP packaged CPLDs within the price boundaries about the same as common GAL devices (I would be OK with GALs with about max of 22 pins, no need - yet! - for fancy things requiring >40 pins with hard-to-deal-with packages and/or SMT). Eg "GAL 20 V 8 B-25LP LATTICE DIP24" costs less than $2 in a local store here in Hungary, but what rings the bells that they have limited storage on GALs and they said they can't get more later it seems as no longer produced ICs we're talking about.
Of course at the other hand someone can ask me why using 65xx when there are much more "modern" CPUs
so maybe it's OK with stick on GALs too, just while 65xx is still actively produced, GALs are not, at this is my view now after checking out some vendors.
At the other hand I've found things like "TIBPAL20R8-10CNT (TI) HIGH-PERFORM. HIGH-SPEED 10ns PLD. DIP-24(3#)" for literally only cents (about 5 Hungarian Forint .....), these are PALs. But I am even less familiar with these devices than GALs, maybe OTP stuffs and even more outdated devices than GALs. But so cheap that maybe it's OK to throw them away and begin with a new one instead of reprogramming