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Catapult C
Catapult C Synthesis, a commercial electronic design automation product of Mentor Graphics, is a high-level synthesis tool, sometimes called algorithmic synthesis or ESL synthesis. Catapult C takes ANSI C/C++ and SystemC inputs and generates register transfer level (RTL) code targeted to FPGAs and ASICs. History In 2004, Mentor Graphics formally announced its Catapult C high level synthesis product offering hierarchical design support for synthesizing pipelined, multi-block subsystems from untimed ANSI C/C++ descriptions. Catapult C's main functionality was generating RTL (VHDL and Verilog) targeted to ASICs and FPGAs. Users specified constraints for timing and area, and provided a clock period and destination technology. Mentor also announced a Catapult C Library Builder for ASIC Designers to collect detailed characterization data. In 2005, Mentor announced extensions to Catapult C to automatically create SystemC transaction-level models and wrappers, for simulation of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Design Automation
Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools work together in a Design flow (EDA), design flow that chip designers use to design and analyze entire semiconductor chips. Since a modern semiconductor chip can have billions of components, EDA tools are essential for their design; this article in particular describes EDA specifically with respect to integrated circuits (ICs). History Early days Prior to the development of EDA, integrated circuits were designed by hand and manually laid out. Some advanced shops used geometric software to generate tapes for a Gerber format, Gerber photoplotter, responsible for generating a monochromatic exposure image, but even those copied digital recordings of mechanically drawn components. The process was fundamentally graphic, with the translation f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mentor Graphics
Siemens EDA is a US-based electronic design automation (EDA) multinational corporation for electrical engineering and electronics, headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. Founded in 1981 as Mentor Graphics, the company was acquired by Siemens in 2017. The company distributes products that assist in electronic design automation, simulation tools for analog mixed-signal design, VPN solutions, and fluid dynamics and heat transfer tools. The company leveraged Apollo Computer workstations to differentiate itself within the computer-aided engineering (CAE) market with its software and hardware. History Siemens EDA was founded as Mentor Graphics in 1981 by Tom Bruggere, Gerry Langeler, and Dave Moffenbeier, all formerly of Tektronix. The company raised $55 million in funding through an initial public offering in 1984. Mentor initially wrote software that ran only in Apollo workstations. When Mentor entered the CAE market the company had two technical differentiators: the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-level Synthesis
High-level synthesis (HLS), sometimes referred to as C synthesis, electronic system-level (ESL) synthesis, algorithmic synthesis, or behavioral synthesis, is an automated design process that takes an abstract behavioral specification of a digital system and finds a register-transfer level structure that realizes the given behavior. Synthesis begins with a high-level specification of the problem, where behavior is generally decoupled from low-level circuit mechanics such as clock-level timing. Early HLS explored a variety of input specification languages,IEEE XplorHigh-Level Synthesis: Past, Present, and FutureDOI 10.1109/MDT.2009.83 although recent research and commercial applications generally accept synthesizable subsets of ANSI C/C++/ SystemC/MATLAB. The code is analyzed, architecturally constrained, and scheduled to transcompile into a register-transfer level (RTL) design in a hardware description language (HDL), which is in turn commonly synthesized to the gate level by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ANSI C
ANSI C, ISO C, and Standard C are successive standards for the C programming language published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22/WG 14 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Historically, the names referred specifically to the original and best-supported version of the standard (known as C89 or C90). Software developers writing in C are encouraged to conform to the standards, as doing so helps portability between compilers. History and outlook The first standard for C was published by ANSI. Although this document was subsequently adopted by ISO/IEC and subsequent revisions published by ISO/IEC have been adopted by ANSI, "ANSI C" is still used to refer to the standard. While some software developers use the term ISO C, others are standards-body neutral and use Standard C. Standardizing C In 1983, the American National Standards Institute formed a committee, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Register Transfer Level
In digital circuit design, register-transfer level (RTL) is a design abstraction which models a synchronous digital circuit in terms of the flow of digital signals (data) between hardware registers, and the logical operations performed on those signals. Register-transfer-level abstraction is used in hardware description languages (HDLs) like Verilog and VHDL to create high-level representations of a circuit, from which lower-level representations and ultimately actual wiring can be derived. Design at the RTL level is typical practice in modern digital design. Unlike in software compiler design, where the register-transfer level is an intermediate representation and at the lowest level, the RTL level is the usual input that circuit designers operate on. In fact, in circuit synthesis, an intermediate language between the input register transfer level representation and the target netlist is sometimes used. Unlike in netlist, constructs such as cells, functions, and multi-bit re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FPGA
A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturinghence the term '' field-programmable''. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Circuit diagrams were previously used to specify the configuration, but this is increasingly rare due to the advent of electronic design automation tools. FPGAs contain an array of programmable logic blocks, and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects allowing blocks to be wired together. Logic blocks can be configured to perform complex combinational functions, or act as simple logic gates like AND and XOR. In most FPGAs, logic blocks also include memory elements, which may be simple flip-flops or more complete blocks of memory. Many FPGAs can be reprogrammed to implement different logic functions, allowing flexible reconfigurabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Application-specific Integrated Circuit
An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficiency video codec. Application-specific standard product (ASSP) chips are intermediate between ASICs and industry standard integrated circuits like the 7400 series or the 4000 series. ASIC chips are typically fabricated using metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) technology, as MOS integrated circuit chips. As feature sizes have shrunk and design tools improved over the years, the maximum complexity (and hence functionality) possible in an ASIC has grown from 5,000 logic gates to over 100 million. Modern ASICs often include entire microprocessors, memory blocks including ROM, RAM, EEPROM, flash memory and other large building blocks. Such an ASIC is often termed a SoC (system-on-chip). Designers of digital ASICs often use a hardware descrip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VHDL
The VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is a hardware description language (HDL) that can model the behavior and structure of digital systems at multiple levels of abstraction, ranging from the system level down to that of logic gates, for design entry, documentation, and verification purposes. Since 1987, VHDL has been standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as IEEE Std 1076; the latest version of which is IEEE Std 1076-2019. To model analog and mixed-signal systems, an IEEE-standardized HDL based on VHDL called VHDL-AMS (officially IEEE 1076.1) has been developed. VHDL is named after the United States Department of Defense program that created it, the Very High-Speed Integrated Circuits Program (VHSIC). In the early 1980s, the VHSIC Program sought a new HDL for use in the design of the integrated circuits it aimed to develop. The product of this effort was VHDL Version 7.2, released in 1985. The effo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verilog
Verilog, standardized as IEEE 1364, is a hardware description language (HDL) used to model electronic systems. It is most commonly used in the design and verification of digital circuits at the register-transfer level of abstraction. It is also used in the verification of analog circuits and mixed-signal circuits, as well as in the design of genetic circuits. In 2009, the Verilog standard (IEEE 1364-2005) was merged into the SystemVerilog standard, creating IEEE Standard 1800-2009. Since then, Verilog is officially part of the SystemVerilog language. The current version is IEEE standard 1800-2017. Overview Hardware description languages such as Verilog are similar to software programming languages because they include ways of describing the propagation time and signal strengths (sensitivity). There are two types of assignment operators; a blocking assignment (=), and a non-blocking (>>. A generate–endgenerate construct (similar to VHDL's generate–endgenerate) allows Verilog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (stylized as cādence), headquartered in San Jose, California, is an American multinational corporation, multinational computational software company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc. The company produces software, Electronic hardware, hardware and silicon structures for designing integrated circuits, System on chip, systems on chips (SoCs) and printed circuit boards. History Origins Cadence Design Systems began as an Electronic design automation, electronic design automation (EDA) company, formed by the 1988 merger of Solomon Design Automation (SDA), co-founded in 1983 by A. Richard Newton, Richard Newton, Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli and James Solomon, and ECAD, Inc., ECAD, a public company co-founded by Ping Chao, Glen Antle and Paul Huang in 1982. SDA's CEO Joseph Costello (software executive), Joseph Costello was appointed as CEO of the newly combined company. Executive leadership Following the resignation of Cadenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xilinx
Xilinx, Inc. ( ) was an American technology and semiconductor company that primarily supplied programmable logic devices. The company was known for inventing the first commercially viable field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and creating the first fabless manufacturing model.Jonathan Cassell, iSuppli.A Forgettable Year for Memory Chip Makers: iSuppli releases preliminary 2008 semiconductor rankings." December 1, 2008. Retrieved January 15, 2009.John Edwards, EDN." June 1, 2006. Retrieved January 15, 2009. Xilinx was co-founded by Ross Freeman, Bernard Vonderschmitt, and James V. Barnett II, James V Barnett II in 1984 and the company went public on the NASDAQ in 1990. AMD announced its acquisition of Xilinx in October 2020 and the deal was completed on February 14, 2022 through an all-stock transaction worth an estimated $50 billion. Company overview Xilinx was founded in Silicon Valley in 1984 and headquartered in San Jose, California, San Jose, USA, with additional offices in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
