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GAL chips seem expensive to get started with, since programmers cost hundreds of dollars and even ISP cables aren't cheap.

Is there a cheaper way?

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I've always heard it rendered as "Gate Array Logic". "Generic Array Logic" Is new to me. – Connor Wolf Nov 5 '10 at 5:42
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_array_logic That's what they always called them in my EE classes. – samoz Nov 5 '10 at 13:58

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I'm not even sure GALs are still around today. CPLDs and FPGAs are preferred I believe, though I'm no expert. You can dig up development kits from digilentinc.com. There's a CPLD kit for $18 and the USB JTAG programming cable is $50. Those parts are Digilent C-Mod and JTAG-USB Cable. I believe the software (at least starter software) is free. Good luck!

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I just think it's a bit ridiculous that the programmers are more than twice as much as the kit itself. – samoz Nov 5 '10 at 13:57
Chips are cheap. Well, cables ought to be cheap, but there is a bit of intelligence in the cable. And it's proprietary. So yeah, it is a little ridiculous. – AngryEE Nov 5 '10 at 15:28
If chips are cheap, use a cpld to make a cpld programmer... posted as a joke, but that's actually what you will find inside a lot of them. Often the USB ones are an FT245 and the same CPLD previously used in the parallel version. – Chris Stratton Mar 12 '11 at 7:15
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Here is the schematic for a simple home-made PCB for experimenting with Xilinx XC9536 CPLDs. It has a connector for a Xilinx programming cable, a socket for a crystal oscillator and an LED, as well as a small prototyping area. The artwork file is available.

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Standard GALs need funky voltages and waveforms for programming. Lattice do some 'ispGAL' products which added an IS interface, but unless you want to stick to DILs and/or 5V, low-end CPLDs are more capable and easier to program.

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