Synplicity, Inc. and Lattice Semiconductor expanded their relationship to include delivery of a highly optimized, non-proprietary ESL synthesis flow for DSP design.  Synplicity's Synplify® DSP software now supports the LatticeECP2MÔ and LatticeXP2Ô Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices, creating a powerful solution for DSP algorithm implementation in aerospace, wireless, telecom and digital multimedia applications.

The Lattice-Synplicity relationship leverages the distinct competencies of each company to present new and innovative solutions for DSP algorithm design.  The Synplify DSP software, Synplicity's ESL synthesis platform, offers high-level modeling and hardware abstraction, constraint-driven algorithm synthesis into RTL and powerful system-wide optimizations for performance, area and multi-channelization tradeoff exploration.  The combination of Synplify DSP and Lattice FPGA architectures helps designers capture multi-rate DSP algorithms quickly and easily.  Designers can perform architectural exploration across multiple Lattice devices and create algorithmic IP that is highly portable and reusable, so users can easily map their DSP algorithms into any computing platform.

According to Haines, the expanded relationship with Lattice is expected to provide real user benefits for the implementation of DSP algorithms into silicon.  With M-Control fully integrated into the Synplify DSP library and The MathWorks Simulink environment, data type and sample rate inheritance and propagation are fully supported.  M-Control features online debugging for supporting breakpoints and stepping into the M code.  These features greatly simplify the specification and verification of control functionality that is often integrated into DSP algorithms.  Moreover, with a comprehensive IP library of industry-standard functional blocks, such as FFTs, Viterbi decoders, DDS and CORDIC math functions, mutual customers of Lattice and Synplicity now can create designs rapidly in application-specific domains.

Synplify DSP is also well suited for wireless algorithm design, so Lattice users can develop FPGA-based applications for digital RF/IF processing, FEC (forward error correction) and digital multimedia (audio and video) encryption, as well as high-performance computing.  Vector support in Synplify DSP dramatically reduces the effort needed to create multi-channel wireless algorithms and multi-antenna algorithms such as MIMO, video, radar and security applications.  These features enable customers to rapidly describe, verify and implement complex wireless algorithms (such as WiMAX, 802.11 a/b/g/n and DVB standards) into hardware devices.

For high-performance DSP applications, Lattice devices provide up to a 50 percent performance and 75 percent logic utilization improvement over other solutions when implementing common DSP functions.  Through advanced 90nm silicon technology, an optimized architecture and proprietary circuit design, Lattice devices reduce total solution costs by up to 30-50 percent compared to other FPGA solutions.  It is believed that these distinct advantages will promote the adoption of FPGAs within the $20 billion ASIC marketplace.

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