Do old FPGA's decay?

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: Do old FPGA's decay?
>   From: Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com>
>   Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:28:29 -0500
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>
>"Chuck Guzis" wrote:
>>
>>But do old FPGA's just quietly go belly-up?  Or is there something about
>>the XC2064-50 that I'm in the dark about?  Are there any easy tests that I
>>can apply to confirm my suspicions?  
>
>Doesn't it need to be 'loaded', either via a eeprom or the pcu?
>
>Most older fpga's (I thought) had to be programmed at startup via some
>form of bit-serial line.  This is often something like an i2c eeprom
>directly attached to the chip.
>
>I have not looked that XC2 datasheet, however. (actually, I'm having trouble
>finding one...)
>
>-brad

I looked up the ISP2064 (lattice) and that is the case.  Also if the mode 
pins are set a differnt way it can parallel load from a common ee/e/rom
or microprocessor.

Allison