15 February 2011
FPGA start up uses the cloud to host design software
FPGA start up Tabula has unveiled software which supports designers in the use of its Abax family. These so called '3d' chips use an approach called Spacetime, in which time is used as a design parameter.
Called Stylus, the software is delivered via cloud computing. Alain Bismuth, vp of marketing, said: "We have already deployed Stylus on a number of customer applications and this has given us the confidence that Stylus is ready for production."
According to the company, Stylus maintains a design flow which is familiar to fpga users. "That's key to its adoption," Bismuth claimed. "We have made a lot of effort to make it look like the familiar asic and fgpa tools, but with delivery through the cloud, it will have a better user experience."
Rajeev Jayaraman, vp of software development, said: "Stylus uses the same front end as Altera and Xilinx tools, but the back end synthesis does a generic logic optimisation, mapping to specific architectural elements on the device. The process will also generate a netlist based on Abax primitives."
Jayaraman added that Tabula had enjoyed the benefit of building Stylus from the ground up. "There is an integrated cockpit featuring a tab based browser, with each tab giving a different view of the design."
Addressing security issues, Tabula is hosting the service on Tier 4 data centres, with each customer's data stored on different servers.
Meanwhile, Tabula has launched the ABAX 3PLD development kit, which features the ABAX A1EC04 3PLD. The development kit allows users to access Stylus software.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.tabula.com
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