Companies Team Up To Accelerate FPGA Designs

Pooling technologies to decrease time to market for FPGA-based systems, the companies have mated Xilinx's ChipScope Pro and Agilent Technologies' trace core and trace port analyzer. The combination promises to accelerate debug time for in-circuit designs and lower development costs. The ChipScope software integrates directly with its maker's Integrated Software Environment version 5.1i. Once paired with trace core and trace port analyzer, users can perform complex analysis of signals within the FPGA. Trace core is a new core developed specifically for in-system debugging of Xilinx FPGAs and trace port analyzer is a LAN-based cable equipped with deep trace storage that provides access to the FPGA. The entire system supports Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-II, Virtex-E, Spartan-II, and Spartan-IIE FPGA families. ChipScope with trace core is initially priced at $695. Trace port analyzer, option E5904B, is priced at $6,995.