C-to-FPGA compiler supports Virtex-6, Spartan-6

SAN FRANCISCO—The CoDeveloper C-to-FPGA compiler from Impulse Accelerated Technologies has been updated to support the latest devices and software from Xilinx Inc., including the Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs and Version 11.2 of Xilinx ISE design suite, Impulse said Monday (Aug. 24).

The Impulse C-to-FPGA tools allow engineers to develop custom filter modules in C, increasing productivity for developers of advanced video and image processing, DSP, and hardware-accelerated computing applications, according to Impulse (Kirkland, Wash.). Users of Impulse C report saving as much as half of their design time using C when compared to using HDL methods, according to the company.

CoDeveloper 3.6 enables embedded co-processing with the newest Xilinx MicroBlaze and PowerPC processor cores, Impulse said. CoDeveloper decreases design risk by allowing applications to be verified at a higher level using standard C debuggers, according to the firm.

CoDeveloper also allows users to verify the generated hardware via an automated C-to-HDL test bench conversion option that is compatible with Mentor ModelSim and other HDL simulators, Impulse said.

According to Impulse, CoDeveloper Version 3.6 allows users of Xilinx Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs to:

Rapidly create, verify and deploy custom filters for video, DSP and other applications, using supplied templates and wizards.

Design and deploy royalty-free FPGA algorithms to process data with high throughput, using both automated and programmer-specified parallel optimizations.

Preserve application compatibility with Visual Studio, Eclipse, and GCC and other common C-language tools.

Automatically generate I/O including streams, signals, memories and registers.

Automatically create processor interfaces using PLB, APU and FSL bus interconnections.

Use hardware/software co-design methods to accelerate PowerPC and MicroBlaze software applications.

Generate HDL test benches compatible with ModelSim' and other HDL simulators from C code.

Target popular FPGA development platforms, including boards and systems from Xilinx, Avnet, Cray, Curtiss-Wright, Digilent, The Dini Group, DRC Computer, Dynalith, Faster Technology, Nallatech, Nu Horizons, Opal Kelly, PLDA, Pico Computing, SGI, Sundance DSP, Tokyo Electron Devices, VMETRO and others.