Free Integrated FPGA Design Suite Bundles Three Vendors’ Tools

The Actel DeskTOP is a three-vendor suite of logic design tools from Synplicity, VeriBest and Actel that’s available for free through January 31, 2000. The basic version of Actel DeskTOP offers synthesis for devices of up to 50,000 gates and can be used to design with more than 20 Actel FPGAs for commercial and high-reliability applications.The suite integrates the functionalities of VeriBest’s DesignView design manager, schematic entry and VHDL simulator; Synplicity’s Synplify synthesis software; and Actel’s Designer place-and-route tool as well as programming, logic analyzer and timing analysis software. It represents the first phase of a three-tiered offering, the second of which is DeskTOP Pro. That release will represent a complete tool suite for “power users” designing high-gate-count, system-level devices. Next up is DeskTOP Open, featuring an open synthesis environment.