Partners to accelerate FPGA-to-ASIC retargeting

AMI Semiconductor and Synplicity plan to jointly develop, test and promote a next-generation design flow to solve new performance and productivity needs related to high-density FPGA conversions

AMI Semiconductor and Synplicity intend to enter into a joint marketing and development agreement.

Under the terms of this agreement, the two companies plan to jointly develop, test and promote a next-generation design flow to solve new performance and productivity needs related to high-density FPGA conversions.

In addition, AMIS will recommend Synplicity's new Synplify ASIC synthesis software to its customers for re-targeting FPGAs to ASICs.

Specifically, designers can use the Synplify ASIC software to re-target their FPGA designs "on-site" into cost-effective AMIS gate-array and standard-cell ASICs, speeding their time to market while retaining design control.

"AMI Semiconductor chose Synplicity's Synplify ASIC product as the recommended FPGA-to-ASIC synthesis tool for our customers because the software directly addresses the most compelling design and time-to-market needs by generating excellent results in the shortest time possible", said Vince Hopkin, vice president, AMIS Digital ASIC Business Unit.

"The FPGA design is imported into the Synplify ASIC product and then targeted and optimised to the AMIS libraries." With more than 1600 successful conversions to its credit, AMIS has a first-pass success rate exceeding 95 percent.

Understanding that many designers prefer to maintain control when re-targeting their FPGA design to an ASIC, AMIS set out to recommend tools that would help designers achieve similar success rates independently.

For the new flow, AMIS will draw from its unsurpassed NETRANSR conversion technology and libraries, and will test the Synplify ASIC software with other design tools in critical stages of the design flow to confirm interoperability and deliver a smooth flow to customers.

"We believe AMI Semiconductor is the undisputed leader in FPGA-to-ASIC conversions, and we applaud AMIS for testing design flow interoperability to help ensure smooth handoff between design tools", said Andy Haines, Synplicity's vice president of marketing.

"We're pleased that our Synplify ASIC product will be their recommended FPGA-to-ASIC synthesis tool.

By combining Synplicity's expertise in synthesis and AMIS' new methodology, including our easy-to-use Synplify ASIC product, designers will have greater control over their designs and add to their overall productivity".

Synplicity's Synplify ASIC software will synthesise the design from the register transfer level (RTL), producing a gate-level netlist that is optimised for place and route.

Because synthesis is done with the RTL code, customers can have greater control over their design's timing.

Additionally, the Synplify ASIC product can run up to 15 times faster than traditional ASIC synthesis products and is very easy to learn and use.

A key benefit to AMIS customers, many of whom currently use Synplicity's FPGA synthesis products, is that it takes only a few steps to re-target an FPGA that was synthesised using Synplicity's Synplify synthesis products into an AMIS ASIC using the Synplify ASIC tool.

This streamlined design flow can save time and reduce the opportunity for error in the retargeting process.

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