I'm new to BTC and FPGA. I see lots of discussion and lots of good-intended vaporware. I see the real thing too in ztex,icarus,x6500,bfl. (I miss any?)

But has anyone actually talked with a company that is in the business of creating FPGA designs and products?
I know there are some companies that take FPGA designs and automate the FPGA design to an ASIC product.

I may look into it just for the experience and see what happens. I'm sure some of you here already know where this will take me so chime in.

I envision getting some quotes, settling on one and then crowd funding for that.
Part of the request for the quote will require that the entire design be free (as-in freedom). Will that change the price?

Has it been tried already?

[UPDATES]
Wed Mar 21, 2012 I have sent out three requests in the past week or so. No replies yet.