<FONT COLOR="RED"><B>Electronica:</B></FONT> Xilinx uploads FPGA design to the Internet

MUNICH, Germany — Xilinx Inc. this week will push both Web-based design and field-programmable gate arrays to the next level, unleashing a scheme to reconfigure the devices in-system over the Internet. At the biannual Electronica exhibition here, the San Jose, Calif., FPGA vendor will take the wraps off an architecture called Internet Reconfigurable Logic (IRL), which it says has the potential to remake all manner of networked devices whenever the need arises.

The approach takes the ability to download Java-based software applications and extends it to hardware. As a result, the logic of networked equipment outfitted with Xilinx's latest series of FPGAs, known as Virtex, could be changed repeatedly to support new functions as required by the network or by local demands.

"IRL technologies will be the basis for 21st-century products that will have the ability to be dynamically upgraded with both software and logic on the customer premises," said Wim Roelandts, president and chief executive officer of Xilinx. "The concept of IRL will revolutionize the flexibility of network-connected products."

Xilinx has already enjoyed some success in promoting logic reconfigurability based on the use of its FPGAs in standalone products, such as a digital-audio mixing desk, and in networked products like routers. The company is now putting together a coordinated approach to Internet-based reconfiguration in an attempt to win sockets in set-top boxes, Web TVs, PCs and network computers, cell and video phones, security systems and process controllers, all of which are expected to one day be linked to the Net.

Xilinx is partnering with Sun Microsystems Inc., Siemens AG, as well as EDA tool supplier Synplicity Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and reconfigurable-board vendor Annapolis Micro Systems Inc. (Annapolis, Md.) in support of the approach. It has also nabbed endorsements from equipment makers IBM and Compaq.

Xilinx said that three technologies would empower the design of IRL products: pervasive networking, Java and the partially reconfigurable Virtex FPGAs, a product range announced recently. The Virtex architecture allows designs of up to a million gates and can include a Java Virtual Machine in a part of its logic array.

Tool support
At Electronica, Xilinx will announce two design tools to support IRL. JBits in effect makes it possible to create Java logic applets that can be used to send hardware updates via the Internet, Xilinx claims. And ChipScope is a portable interactive debug tool, written in Java, which allows designers to examine the operation of Xilinx FPGA circuits over the Internet.

At the same time, Synplicity is due to announce that its synthesis and floor-planning technology will be extended to support Xilinx's IRL strategy.

"We have utilized many of these FPGA-based reconfigurable concepts in our ATM switches at IBM," said John Calvignac, an IBM Fellow with the networking-hardware division in Raleigh, N.C. "Our customers have been pleased to see product updates occur automatically via the network. These seamless updates have included both software and hardware changes. With its tools for Internet Reconfigurable Logic, Xilinx is broadening the appeal of this technology."

As part of the IRL initiative, Siemens IT-DL, a design-services business unit based here and specializing in industrial applications, will provide design services to customers who want to realize network-based products that include Virtex FPGAs. Siemens said it will begin the IRL service at the start of 1999. Similarly, Annapolis Micro Systems is planning to supply board-level subsystems that can use JBits and IRL tools to provide users with the ability to reconfigure hardware over the Internet.

JBits is a Java-based tool set that allows designers to write information directly to Xilinx FPGAs, the company said. JBits permits the FPGA bit stream — the serial data that configures the FPGA logic — to be modified and supports the partial or full reconfiguration of a device.

Also, said Xilinx, JBits supports maintenance of timing information and aids the integration of Virtex FPGA operations with other digital components, such as embedded processors or peripherals. JBits applets make use of the Java application programming interface for Boundary Scan, which Xilinx unveiled in September.

Xilinx's second tool, ChipScope, displays the internal states of multiple FPGAs in a system and supports waveform displays of both bit-level signals and multibit buses. It can be used to support remote debug of equipment nodes in an IRL system or for Internet team-based design of what may eventually be a standalone system or a discrete chip.

JBits and ChipScope are forthcoming EDA tools within Xilinx's Silicon Xpresso initiative. They follow the announcement a few weeks ago of the Java API for the Boundary Scan and Webfitter tools, plus the Foundation 1.5i release of Xilinx design tools for Web-enabled design.

Details of the newest tools are still sketchy. Beta versions of JBits and ChipScope are due in the first quarter of 1999, the company said.

Adding to the tool support will be the Synplicity technologies. "We are excited to be working with Xilinx on its IRL strategy and believe our synthesis and floor-planning technology will enable designers to effectively deploy their million-gate designs through the Internet," said Andy Haines, vice president of marketing at Synplicity. "Our partnership with Xilinx will provide designers with a complete design and development solution for IRL."

One issue still unresolved in the IRL puzzle is test. Test and verification already occupy considerable time for standalone systems as OEMs seek to ensure the operation of their equipment. In a world of dynamically reconfigured and interacting systems, correct operation will be even harder to guarantee.

"We believe that it is possible to use the Internet itself for testing in a rigorous way," said Wallace Westfeldt, product manager for IRL at Xilinx. To the related issue of design security, Westfeldt said, "There's no specific encryption technology in the first versions of the IRL tools, but they do offer support for 'secure' blocks. Since you can deliver code in the form of applets, you are making it easier to use existing encryption methods."

Another issue is whether customers will be happy to base equipment and network functionality on Java, a technology that is still proprietary to Sun (Mountain View, Calif.). Westfeldt was confident this would not be a problem for most engineers and companies.

Gene Nelson, vice president of Compaq Computer Corp.'s custom-systems division, said, "Compaq's PCI development platform embodies many of the Internet Reconfigurable Logic concepts, which can benefit our customers today." With standardized support from Xilinx, he said, "we will be able to take these IRL concepts much further in future FPGA-based products."

Rich Sevcik, senior vice president of software, cores and support solutions at Xilinx, quoted International Data Corp. projections of "more than 500 million new Internet appliances by the year 2003. We're confident that the system-level features of our new Virtex FPGAs, combined with innovative tools like JBits and ChipScope, will provide the necessary foundation to help bring IRL applications into the mainstream."