Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: Libero v5.1 IDE
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 11 December 2003
FPGA software gains physical synthesis
option
Actel has enhanced its Libero integrated design environment to include Magma Design Automation's PALACE physical synthesis tool.
Actel has enhanced its Libero integrated design environment (IDE) to include Magma Design Automation's PALACE (Physical And Logical Automatic Compilation Engine) physical synthesis tool Through a new OEM agreement with Magma, the PALACE software, which can provide an average of 20% higher performance for ProASIC Plus FPGAs, is available from Actel as a standalone tool bundled with Actel's Libero IDE
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 5 Aug 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Development environment helps cut power
Enhancements enable easy comparisons of multiple design scenarios and their resulting power consumption and battery life implications.
Plug-in cards speed specific FPGA designs
HMI and miniature motor control daughtercards enable designers to shave months off of their design time and easily meet the most stringent power budgets.
In addition, Actel announced that the Silver and Gold Editions of the Libero v5.1 IDE now provide device support for up to 300,000 gates, delivering support at little or no cost for many of Actel's larger gate count devices.
"Now integrated as part of Actel's development tools portfolio, the PALACE physical synthesis tool from Magma offers a simple interface that requires little user intervention.
This is extremely important to FPGA designers who typically value ease of use", said Saloni Howard-Sarin, Director of Tools Marketing at Actel.
Further reading
FPGA family promises more for less
Low-power field-programmable gate arrays claim the industry's best power-, area-, logic- and feature-per-I/O ratios in a programmable device.
Programmable devices add ADC calibration
Fusion PSC calibration intellectual property eliminates the additional discrete ADCs and prescalers often required to achieve higher levels of accuracy.
Low-cost FPGAs start under a buck
New Igloo AGL015 and ProASIC3 A3P015 FPGAs provide lower cost, lower power alternative to low-density FPGAs and CPLDs in consumer, medical, comms and industrial applications
"In addition, we're excited that customers will be able to use Actel's Libero Silver and Gold Editions to access larger gate count devices at a very affordable price point".
Seamlessly integrated with Actel's Libero IDE, Magma's PALACE physical synthesis tool provides fast timing closure and predictability while reducing design costs and design cycles.
The simple-to-use tool accepts an interpreted netlist and makes optimal placement decisions based on constraints and detailed design and interconnect modelling.
The Magma PALACE tool provides further benefit to the user by quickly achieving performance requirements without modifying the HDL or schematic design source.
The combination of technologies from Actel and Magma provides a compelling advantage to designers of ASICs complex FPGAs who want to leverage programmable logic in an ASIC design flow.
The PALACE software initially supports Actel's ProASIC Plus family of FPGAs.
The new Libero v5.1 IDE also features support, from synthesis through place and route, for up to 300K gates, a sixfold increase in gate count coverage over the previous Libero Gold offering.
Actel customers can use the Actel version of Synplicity's industry-leading Synplify Lite synthesis software, included with the Libero IDE, to optimise their FPGA designs.
Demonstrating Actel's commitment to provide cost-effective FPGA design solutions to its customers, the upgraded software ensures free or low-cost support for Actel's larger gate count devices.
Actel's Libero v5.1 IDE offers the latest and best in class tools from such EDA powerhouses as Mentor Graphics, SynaptiCAD, Synplicity, Magma Design Automation and custom developed tools from Actel integrated into a single FPGA development package.
Actel offers not only one-stop shopping for its customer's EDA tools needs, but also a powerful design manager that keeps track of design files and seamlessly manages all the interoperability issues that typically arise when using tools from different vendors.
The Libero tool suite supports mixed-mode design entry input, giving designers the choice of mixing either high-level VHDL or Verilog HDL language blocks with schematic modules within a design.
The Actel Libero v5.1 IDE is available now in four editions: Platinum PS (physical synthesis), Platinum, Gold and Silver.
Libero Silver may be used by qualified designers for one year free of charge via the Actel website.
Pricing for the Platinum PS version, including the Actel edition of Magma's PALACE tool, begins at $3495.00 for a one-year licence.
An evaluation version of Libero Platinum PS may be used by qualified designers for 45 days free of charge.
Pricing for the Gold version starts at $595.
A one-year standalone version of the PALACE software for use with Actel's Designer is available from Actel for $1795.
• Actel Europe: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
