Mentor's tools support Altera's 40nm Stratix IV FPGA family

Stratix IV FPGAs meet the diverse needs of high-end applications in a large number of markets. The folks at Mentor say that customers leveraging Precision Synthesis technology in their Stratix IV FPGA designs will achieve fast timing closure and increased performance improvements, while lowering overall FPGA design development costs.

Altera Stratix IV FPGAs provide high-data rates, increased data processing and best-in-class transceiver bandwidths, all in a power-efficient manner. These capabilities enable Stratix IV FPGAs to address the needs of applications such as network infrastructure, base stations, and advanced imaging equipment. Altera and Mentor Graphics have worked closely together to ensure increased productivity and comprehensive design synthesis support for customers using the Precision Synthesis product for Altera Stratix IV FPGAs. Mentor's Precision support of the Stratix IV devices is now available to customers in beta, with full production at the end of June.

Further, Stratix IV FPGA libraries for Mentor's Precision synthesis tool can be used to develop characterized libraries for Catapult C Synthesis. This benefits Altera customers two-fold: the use of standard ANSI C++ to safely create high performance hardware found in wireless and image devices, and the custom accelerated libraries allow these customers to exploit the DSP blocks in the Stratix IV FPGA, enabling a much higher Fmax and improved performance.

Precision Synthesis: The centerpiece of Mentor's FPGA flow
The Precision Synthesis tool forms the centerpiece of the Mentor Graphics FPGA flow. Mentor claims that Precision Synthesis is the industry's most comprehensive vendor-independent solution for FPGA design; also that it's the only synthesis tool which offers true push-button, multi-vendor physical synthesis for achieving the best quality of results.

With comprehensive language support (including SystemVerilog), advanced ASIC prototyping flow, and automatic incremental synthesis, the folks at Mentor say that Precision Synthesis is uniquely suited to handle today's high-end FPGAs. The Precision Synthesis tool features design analysis capability, allowing designers to cross-probe between multiple views as well as perform interactive static timing "what-if" analyses. The Precision Synthesis tool is claimed to reduce design iterations, and enable faster, more predictable completion of designs, while delivering high quality of results.