FPGA Design Suite Supports Graphical Block-Based Design Entry

July 5, 2007

With an eye toward easing the system-level FPGA design process, version 8.0 of Actels Libero integrated design environment (IDE) enables users to design at a higher level of abstraction. Actels Smart- Design technology lets use

David Maliniak

With an eye toward easing the system-level FPGA design process, version 8.0 of Actel’s Libero integrated design environment (IDE) enables users to design at a higher level of abstraction. Actel’s Smart- Design technology lets users visually create and then automatically abstract block-based system designs into synthesis-ready VHDL or Verilog components.

The graphical block-based design entry supports prefabricated blocks from Actel’s extensive DirectCore and SmartGen IP libraries. It also supports custom blocks created in HDL or Synplify DSP and processor subsystems created with Actel’s Core- Console tool.

The SmartDesign capability allows source file components (such as SmartGen- and CoreConsole-configured IP and processor cores, HDL modules, Actel cell macros, and Libero-created blocks) to be visually grouped on a white-board “canvas” in a block-diagram view.

A “catalog” provides an extensive list of IP, macros, HDL templates, and bus interfaces that can be selected and dragged and dropped onto the canvas. Thus, SmartDesign facilitates real design reuse and paves the way for future block capture designs using system Verilog, DSP, mixed hardware/software blocks, and more.

The Actel Libero IDE 8.0 Platinum edition is available on Windows and Linux platforms for $2495. A free limited-feature Gold edition is avail- able for Windows. All editions are one-year renewable licenses. Version 8.0 of the Libero IDE supports all the company’s FPGAs, including the flash-based, low-power ProASIC3 and 5-µW Actel Igloo FPGAs, as well as the company’s Fusion programmable system chip (PSC), a mixed-signal power-management FPGA.

Actel Corp.
www.actel.com

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.