Electronic design automation has its own secret little cold fusion. An innovation that everyone quietly hopes is possible but publicly disavows. A development that would make life beautiful, dogs and cats live happily together, and money grow on trees. This missing link is “behavioral synthesis,” the direct compilation of untimed algorithmic descriptions into practical hardware architectures. Once this is possible, digital hardware designers, the micro-architectural mavens that create much of the magic in today’s ASIC and FPGA designs, will no longer be necessary. All of their relevant expertise, tricks and techniques will be … Read More → "Catapult C"

When someone uses the words “verification” and “FPGA” in the same sentence, I’m always suspicious. In the ASIC design world, where risk avoidance is everything, “verification” is a sacred term. “Verification” is the long pole in the tent, the most time-consuming phase of the design cycle. “Verification” is what you do to protect your job so you’re not blamed with an expensive and time-consuming re-spin of an ASIC design. “Verification” is what EDA companies have learned to trust as their bread-and-butter. … Read More → "FPGA Simulation"