CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

2 March 2005

Product News

Mentor Graphics Announces Tight Synthesis Integration with Xilinx ISE 7.1i and Support for Spartan-3E FPGAs

Mentor Graphics Corporation and Xilinx announced tight integration of Mentor Graphics® Precision® Synthesis tool into the latest version of the Integrated Software Environment (ISE 7.1i) from Xilinx. The companies also announced that Precision Synthesis supports the new Xilinx Spartan-3E FPGAs, part of the low-cost Spartan device series targeted at consumer applications.

Tight integration into ISE 7.1i allows designers using Precision Synthesis to invoke the tool's advanced synthesis features directly from the ISE Project Navigator. Thus, users who are already comfortable with ISE can now complement their design environment and utilize the Precision Synthesis flow to synthesize their designs. Conversely, designers who are more familiar with the powerful capabilities in Precision Synthesis have the option to leverage the easy-to-use, intuitive Mentor Graphics front end to synthesize, analyze, debug and optimize their designs. Constraints set in ISE are utilized by Precision Synthesis, and results generated by Precision Synthesis are automatically passed back to the ISE environment. Designers win both ways, by not only avoiding tedious, potentially error-prone data transfers, but also by eliminating the need to learn new tools.

According to Robert Bielby, senior director, Strategic Solutions, at Xilinx, "The tightly integrated Xilinx ISE 7.1i software design suite incorporating the Precision Synthesis solution further optimizes programmable systems design, enabling accelerated design flows and reducing costs. Moreover, the well established installed base of Precision Synthesis users further provides the opportunity to bring the high density, high I/O count and low-cost benefits of the new Spartan-3E FPGA family to the widest range of designers, paramount for today's fast-changing end markets."

"We worked very closely with Xilinx to integrate Precision Synthesis into the new ISE 7.1i release, thus giving our mutual customers the flexibility of using the best features of both environments," said Simon Bloch, general manager, Design Creation and Synthesis Division, Mentor Graphics. "Similarly, our advanced synthesis support for Spartan-3E FPGAs, combined with its full complement of platform features, delivers a very practical solution for the many companies competing in the consumer electronics arena."

The Precision Synthesis tool is optimized to deliver superior synthesis results. Tightly integrating both logical (Precision RTL) and physical (Precision Physical) optimization techniques, Precision Synthesis empowers customers to start designs right, improve designs quickly, and efficiently meet project requirements. Built on a unified data model, it allows users to cross-probe between multiple views, providing added control during design analysis. In addition, intuitive design project management and full-featured incremental timing analysis enables companies to solve next-generation FPGA implementation and timing challenges, resulting in shorter design cycles, improved competitiveness and significantly higher performance.

 

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