FPGA Central

FPGA Journal Update




a techfocus media publication :: April 21, 2009 :: volume XXIII, no. 03











FROM THE EDITOR



This week, Altium changed the pricing model for their design tools and boards, putting sophisticated design automation within reach of just about everybody. Are they breaking the mold for EDA companies, or just forcing price erosion? Our latest feature takes a look.

Thanks for reading! If there's anything we can do to make our publications more useful to you, please let us know at:comments (AT) fpgajournal (DOT) com. If you'd rather sound off in public, please post your comments or questions in our Journal Forums.



Kevin Morris – Editor in Chief
Techfocus Media, Inc.











EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS











Low power, low cost, small form factor, and reprogrammability—now you can have it all. Targeting high-volume applications and the portable market, Actel IGLOO® nano and ProASIC®3 nano FPGAs enable you to take your design ideas to market profitability in nano time.
Read the white papers and watch the webcast.





















FPGA Vendor Tools Survey - You could win a cool new MSI Wind Netbook if you take a minute to fill out a brief survey on FPGA Vendor Design tools.  You'll also help the industry provide you with better design tools.  Doesn't that sound like a win-win situation?
Click here to take the survey.





















Take our BRAND NEW
SUPER QUICK, JUST A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS,
WON'T TAKE MUCH TIME AT ALL (WE PROMISE)
2009 Journal Reader Survey.

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LATEST NEWS



April 21, 2009



Tesla Motors Uses MathWorks Tools for Model-Based Design to Develop World’s First Electric Production Sports Car



Apache Design Solutions Introduces Totem, the Industry’s First Power and Noise Integrity Platform for Analog and Mixed-Signal Designs



April 20, 2009



Kane Computing Ltd exhibits new Sundance PXI products at National Instruments Military European Solutions Conference



ANSYS Releases Simplorer 8.0 Software



Altera Delivers Stratix IV GX Transceiver Signal Integrity Development Kit



Atmel Launches new AVR32 Microcontroller with High Speed Communication for Digital Audio Solutions



Research and Markets: ASICs, ASSPs & PLD/FPGAs – 2009 Edition Provides Comprehensive Insight



Altera's Stratix III FPGAs Chosen for Harmonic's Next-Generation Universal Broadcast Video Encoder



April 16, 2009



Pigeon Point Systems Ships ATCA Starter Kits Based On Actel Fusion Mixed-Signal FPGA



Synfora to Participate in Industry-Trends Panel at the Design Automation and Test Conference



April 15, 2009



Lattice And Weikeng Expand Distribution Partnership to Greater China



Blue Pearl Software Announces Business Partnership Program with Electronic Design Service Companies and Consultants





CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES

Altium Goes for the Masses
Breaking the EDA Mold... Again (Kevin Morris)
Preaching to the Choir
Proselytizing Programmable Logic
(Kevin Morris)
Incremental Synthesis: Achieving Shorter Design
Cycles Without Quality Trade-Offs
by Darren Zacher, Mentor Graphics
Kicking a Dead Horse
FPGAs Going the Distance Against ASIC
(Kevin Morris)
Building ‘Image Format Conversion’ Designs for Broadcast Systems
by Suhel Dhanani & Girish Malipeddi, Altera Corporation
Retro Revolution
The New Vintage FPGAs
(Kevin Morris)
Superlative Soup
The Three Biggest Baddest FPGAs
(Kevin Morris)

JOURNAL WEBCASTS

NEW! FPGAs Verifying FPGAs. Advanced FPGAs now require a more rigorous verification approach or designers risk spending months in the lab trying to debug their designs in-system. Learn how Device Native® verification integrates seamlessly with your existing FPGA design tools and delivers significant productivity improvements for verification and debug. (GateRocket)



CHALK TALK Confirma™: The Next Era Of Prototyping. Struggling with FPGA prototyping boards? Join Amelia Dalton as she talks with Juergen Jaeger of Synopsys about the Next Era of Rapid Prototyping. (Synopsys)

CHALK TALK From Desktop to Target: What You Need From A Development Suite. Is embedded software development and debug a challenge for your team? Join Amelia Dalton as she chats with Jit Sivalogan of Mentor Graphics about setting up a productive environment for embedded development. (Mentor Graphics)

CHALK TALK Simplified Verification of DSP Algorithms in Hardware. Moving algorithms from MATLAB to FPGAs? Join Amelia Dalton as she explores options for verifying DSP designs implemented in FPGAs with Tim Vanevenhoven from Xilinx. (Xilinx)

CHALK TALK Using Embedded Hypervisors in Mobile Devices. Join Amelia Dalton as she explores the use of embedded hypervisors to create safe and secure software for mobile devices with Rob McCammon of Open Kernel Labs. (Open Kernel Labs)



[click here for more webcasts]












Altium Goes for the Masses
Breaking the EDA Mold... Again (Kevin Morris)

This week, Altium is introducing a new model for the purchase of electronic design tools, in an attempt to create a grass-roots revolution that will change the nature of the electronic design automation (EDA) market.  For the past several years, Altium has been marching to a different drummer - focusing on an integrated desktop design tool suite that spans the gamut of electronic design from system-level specification to board and package layout and verification to FPGA design and to embedded software development and debug.  We characterize this approach as the "Microsoft Office" of EDA - bundling together key capabilities that most design teams require and integrating them into one simple solution.  

Now, Altium is doing the same thing with their pricing models, swerving very close to the "software as a service" concept by offering seats of their design suite for a very affordable monthly fee.  In addition, they're reducing the prices on their perpetual licenses and on their development boards.  The result is that just about anyone who can afford to spend time doing electronic design can also afford a highly capable, comprehensive tool suite.  The price - comparable to what a professional graphic designer would pay for a high-end software suite from Adobe - is a mold-breaker for EDA and on a level playing field with what FPGA companies charge for their vendor-specific tool suites.  Altium is not competing with FPGA vendor tools, however.  Instead, they surround and complement them with a wide range of system- and board-level capabilities that extend far beyond FPGA pins. ! [more]










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