I know this probably isnt possible but...

[sci4me]

Hey guys. So, I have been working on designing a very simple CPU as a basic simple project for fun. Well, not simple but.. anywho, I was wondering if its in any way possible to have it put on to an actual chip. Not an FPGA but its own custom chip. I am just wondering if it is possible to do for a price that is ... well.. not a lot.. In the hundreds... Any more than a few hundred and i'm out of luck. If I can't have my own chip then I suppose I may settle with an FPGA but I would have to learn how to use FPGA's and get one.

[duskglow]

This is exactly what FPGAs are for.  Rolling your own custom chip would cost a lot of money, and I don't even think chip houses would do it for orders of less than, say, a hundred thousand devices.

[Stonent]

Just strip off the Altera/Xilinx/Lattice branding.

[sci4me]

Okay. In that case, Ill use an FPGA if I ever actually make the CPU.

[sci4me]

Just strip off the Altera/Xilinx/Lattice branding.

Will do

[mariush]

There was a mention on The Amp Hour podcast a few episodes ago about a company taking your designs and making actual chips out of them.. but all i remember was something about taking 4-8 months to actually have the chip in your hands.

Go to http://www.theamphour.com/ and read the episode summaries for the last 10-20 episodes or thereabouts if you're interested, sorry I don't know more accurately.

[EEVblog]

No, it's not possible to do your own chip for that price.
FPGA's are:
- Massively cheaper
- Instant (don't have to wait many months)
- Infinitely reprogrammable
- Easier to use (that's saying a lot) and get help with.

FPGA are designed specifically for what you want to do, use them.

[sci4me]

Okay, and can anyone recommend me a fairly cheap (hundred dollar or so?) fpga kit that has everything I need to program it and get things working? Thanks.

[free_electron]

Terasic design board.

[EEVblog]

Okay, and can anyone recommend me a fairly cheap (hundred dollar or so?) fpga kit that has everything I need to program it and get things working? Thanks.

Depends entirely on your design requirements.
But something like this cheap DE0-Nano should do the job
http://www.terasic.com.tw/cgi-bin/page/archive.pl?Language=English&CategoryNo=139&No=593

[notsob]

Just as a reality check, once you have designed your chip as a silicon entity ($$$ cost), there is a 'photographic' process - overlays etching etc to create the final silicon. Others with real world experience can put their 2 cents worth in here, but the cost of just the photographic 'plates' would be quite a few more times more expensive than the average house and that is before you start the fabrication process.

[sci4me]

Okay, now I see why you are saying its not possible in my price range

[romovs]

Okay, and can anyone recommend me a fairly cheap (hundred dollar or so?) fpga kit that has everything I need to program it and get things working? Thanks.

XuLA board. Comes with a nice tutorial for beginners and only 55USD.

[hlavac]

Terasic DE0 Nano. That has fairly big Altera Cyclone IV E. You can fit whole SoC with OpenRISC running Linux on it.

Or, if your design is small, have a look at MachXO and MachXO2 breakout boards from Lattice.
These are extremely cheap yet good way to learn VHDL/Verilog.

For Xilinx you may look for some Spartan 6 boards like the one from Avnet.