( ESNUG 494 Item 7 ) -------------------------------------------- [10/25/11]
Subject: YES to Quartus II & Synplify; NO to MENT Precision & Xilinx XST
> Our group is looking at doing some performance intensive designs using
> either Xilinx Virtex 7 or Altera Stratix V devices. Once we choose
> which FPGA company/family to use, why shouldn't we just use the free RTL
> synthesis tool that comes with it?
>
> If we choose Xilinx, why not use their ISE Design Suite 13?
>
> If we choose Altera, why not use their Quartus II v11.0?
>
> Why should we even bother looking at the commercial FPGA design tools
> like Synopsys Synplicity or Mentor Precision?
>
> - from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0494-04.html
From: [ Happy Gilmore ]
Hi John,
Leave my company name and me out.
The Xilinx synthesis tool is not recommended to be used by our Xilinx FAE
since they are about to decrease investments in their XST tool. They
propose for us to use Synplify in place of it.
- [ Happy Gilmore ]
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: Jonah Probell <jonah=user domain=jonahprobell not mom>
Hi, John,
Lacking any budget for EDA tools in my home lab, I have done several FPGA
projects over the past 10 years using only Altera Quartus II for synthesis.
I consistently achieve quite satisfactory results in terms of clock speed
and logic density.
My FPGA projects have mostly been related to custom CPU designs.
I have also had good success with Altera's library of peripheral IP and
their development kits.
- Jonah Probell
Arteris, Inc. Sunnyvale, CA
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
From: [ I've Been Burned ]
John, ANON please.
As you are WELL aware, Synopsys is not know to be friendly to this sort of
feedback.
- On Mentor FPGA tools: no opinion. I don't know a single person
actually using Precision, but I haven't tried very hard to look.
It is hard to imagine with Gary Meyers now effectively Wally's
boss that Precision survives. Always hard to compete against FREE.
- On SNPS Synplify and Synplify Pro: As far as QOR, the synthesis
Altera that ships FREE with Quartus II is significantly better
than Synplify/Synplify Pro.
The only reason a user would actually spend money for Synplify Pro
would be for additional language features, Synopsys compile
directives, or DesignWare.
From the way this user question was phrased, it doesn't appear that
the user is prototyping an ASIC so these additional features would
have no value. DesignWare functions have no business being in a
standalone FPGA design. (Note that the relationship between Altera
and Synopsys in not good and I don't see that improving. So use
for Altera devices, use Quartus II.
- On Xilinx: XST, the synthesis tool that comes FREE with ISE is in
flux, so the question here is harder to answer.
At this point in time Xilinx is shipping version 13.2. Within the
next few weeks, Xilinx will replace ALL EXISTING software with new
code, called "Rodin" internally.
All support going forward for V7 will be with the new code.
It isn't clear to me when Rodin gets officially released but it is
completely new. This is a scary proposition. ISE, as it exists now
is serviceable but not quite as good as Synplify/Synplify Pro. The
synthesis in Rodin is a wild card. It could be better, but it could,
initially, be dramatically worse.
In the near term it might make sense in the V7 Xilinx tool flow to actually
send money to Synopsys. I hate recommending that, because I honestly don't
like Synopsys as a company.
- [ I've Been Burned ]
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