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Xilinx offers targeted tool bundles for FPGA designs

 

 

Earlier this year Xilinx introduced two families of Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs that it described as enabling targeted design platforms; now, it has begun to add domain-specific tool support around that targetedplatform concept. Xilinx’ ISE Design Suite 11.1 offers, the company says, “interoperable domain-specific design flows and tool configurations for logic, DSP, embedded processing, and system-level design.”

Each of the four editions of the design-tool suite includes a bundle of tools that Xilinx believes will match the needs of different groups of users of FPGAs. For example, the logic edition—for classic logic and connectivity-function design— includes the ISE simulator, the PlanAhead design and analysis tool, the ChipScope debug and serial I/O toolkit, plus a catalogue of IP. Similarly, the DSP edition includes Xilinx’ System Generator for DSP, plus related tools and DSPspecifi c IP. The embedded edition has support for both hardware and software designers, and its IP includes the MicroBlaze soft processor. Xilinx licences the packages using the FLEXnet system, and all packages come confi gured, as standard, for global use over a network. You should achieve more design iterations per day with multithreaded place-and-route, together with faster initial and incremental compilation.

At the same time, Xilinx is rationalising its hardwaredevelopment platforms, moving to a range comprising fewer base boards, which will carry FMCs (FPGA mezzanine cards) that will allow designers to evaluate a range of programmable parts, and also to quickly port algorithmic IP into their projects. The company reports that in a recent user survey of embedded designs, over 20% used more than one processor: the tools now support the option to graphically build dual-processor systems. For code writers, there is a software-only development kit with a complete tool fl ow for the PowerPC and MicroBlaze cores. In the DSP suite, the AccelDSP tool automatically tunes software to optimise DSP functions on the FPGAs’ embedded DSP blocks, and you also get some measure of automated support in project phases such as fl oatingpoint- to-fi xed-point conversion. Pricing for the software spans $2995 for the logic edition to $4595 for the fullsystem edition. Version 11.1 has the domain-specifi c support on Virtex-5 and Spartan-3; support for V-6 and S-6 will phase in, leading up to release 11.2.

Xilinx, www.xilinx.com.