Most software tools are provided for free, sometimes even open source. If money is involved, and we're not talking about things like IDA Pro, prices are usually

Most software tools are provided for free, sometimes even open source. If money is involved, and we're not talking about things like IDA Pro, prices are usually negligible. With Xilinx toolchains, you're paying both for extremely expensive toolchain licenses, and paying quite steep prices for the FPGA units themselves. We're basically shoveling money at Xilinx as fast as we can.