Yeah and unless the FPGA manufacturers start supporting open toolchains, it can end in an instant when the parts become EOL and Lattice (maker of the ICE40 ser

Yeah and unless the FPGA manufacturers start supporting open toolchains, it can end in an instant when the parts become EOL and Lattice (maker of the ICE40 series) starts obfuscating. The problem with open toolchains from the manufacturer's point of view is that they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. They don't want to sell chips one at a time to hobbyists. They want to sell them millions at the time to GM and other companies. In their mind, open toolchains buy them nothing but leave them open to competitors stealing their designs. I'm not saying this view is accurate, it is just how chip vendors think.