Xilinx, Synopsys to integrate front-to-back design

Electronic News, June 16, 1997 by Peter Brown

Under terms of the agreement, for a period of two years Synopsys will be the sole provider of synthesis technology distributed by Xilinx and Xilinx is the only programmable logic vendor entitled to sell the FPGA Express technology over this two-year period. The agreement also calls for both companies to invest in R&D for future advanced synthesis technology for programmable logic.

Xilinx claims the integration of FPGA Express into its software enables the industry's first ready-to-use, front-to-back offering for high-density programmable logic design while providing the necessities for high-level design.

The OEM contract is for five years and will supersede the existing technology partnership the two companies currently have, Xilinx said. Xilinx will be allowed to distribute the FPGA Express through its Foundation Series worldwide under the label Foundation Express.

"Synopsys has made a significant investment in innovating synthesis technology for Xilinx programmable logic devices, and has delivered industry-leading results," said Rich Sevcik, Xilinx senior VP of software. "Partnering with Synopsys to provide this technology for our broad customer base affirms our commitment to jointly develop more comprehensive high level designs solutions supporting 100,000 gate devices and beyond."

Although financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, Sanjiv Kaul, VP of marketing at Synopsys said the agreement with Xilinx would not affect the agreements with Synario and Veri-Best to deliver FPGA Express to its OEMs. The exclusive arrangement is exclusive to the programmable logic industry only, he noted. The OEM agreement is also only for the reselling of the PC-based FPGA Express technology; Unix is not included in the deal.

"Ready-to-use software combines easy-to-use tools with advanced technology to enable the design of highly complex applications," said Gary Smith, senior EDA analyst for the Dataquest market research firm, based in San Jose, Calif.

"The tools out-of-the-box must be easy for customer to install, learn and start using. Comprehensive support services combined with advanced technology are also required for complex design applications. Xilinx's Foundation Series combined with Synopsys' FPGA Express technology exemplifies ready-to-use solutions in the programmable logic market."

Xilinx and Synopsys will work together on new architectures and devices to deliver the performance and device utilization customers are demanding, Xilinx said. Also included in the agreement is a clause that will allow Xilinx hardware and software teams to utilize the FPGA Express technology during the development of new products, the company added.

Xilinx plans to have the Foundation Express available by mid-summer of this year priced at $7,995. The Foundation Express will initially support Xilinx's XC3000, XC4000, XC9500 and XC5000 CPLD and FPGA families.

According to Mr. Sevcik, Xilinx's other synthesis partners--including Exemplar and Synplicity--will still command a significant portion of its customer base acting as third party suppliers. Synopsys will continue to support its other FPGA partners including Altera--who recently signed its own agreement with Synopsys for an technology transfer, R&D, marketing and customer support (EN, Oct. 7, 1996)--Lucent Technologies, and Actel. However, it is unknown whether or not the FPGA Express will find its way to these companies after the initial two years of the agreement.

Actel is one company not relying on Synopsys to be the sole provider of the synthesis technology. Recently, the FPGA company signed an OEM agreement with ViewLogic to provide a complete suite of HLD tools that will be available directly from Actel. Actel's Designer Series will integrate ViewLogic's ViewSynthesis FPGA synthesis, SpeedWave VHDL simulator, and Workview office schematic-based tools.

Synopsys debuted its FPGA Express technology almost a year ago at the 1996 DAC citing a need to improve the quality of synthesis products on the market (EN, June 10, 1996). Xilinx rolled out the Foundation Series software and tools early last year (EN, April 1, 1996).