Xilinx this year introduced two families of Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGAs that enable targeted-design platforms. The company is now adding domain-specific-tool support to the targeted-platform concept. Xilinx’ ISE (integrated software environment) Design Suite 11.1 offers interoperable domain-specific design flows and tool configurations for logic, DSP, embedded processing, and system-level design. Each of the four editions of the design-tool suite includes a bundle of tools that will match different FPGA users’ needs.

For example, the logic edition—for classic logic and connectivity-function design—includes the ISE simulator, the PlanAhead design-and-analysis tool, the ChipScope debugging- and serial-I/O-tool kit, and a catalog of IP (intellectual property). Similarly, the DSP edition includes Xilinx’s System Generator for DSP, plus related tools and DSP-specific IP. The embedded edition supports both hardware and software designers, and its IP includes the MicroBlaze soft processor. Xilinx licenses the packages using the Flexnet system, and all packages come configured for global use over a network. For more information click here.