( DAC 01 Item 24 ) --------------------------------------------- [ 7/31/01 ]
Subject: Exemplar vs. Synplicity vs. Synopsys FPGA Express
TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS: From a Synopsys point of view, while Design Compiler
rules the ASIC synthesis world, FPGA Express is the whipping boy of the
FPGA world. Users just prefer Synplicity or Exemplar when they're making
FPGAs. And, to be fair, many users aren't too keen on the idea of doing
ASIC synthesis with Synplicity, either!
"For fiscal year 1999, I see Exemplar having 38%, Synopsys 35%, and
Synplicity 26% market share -- and I'm seeing the Synopsys number
going down and the Synplicity number going up. When you talk to
Synopsys users, they're not using FPGA Express."
- Gary Smith, Senior EDA Analyst of DataQuest (from SNUG'01 #19)
"I'm in FPGA hell. I never knew that a bad day with Synopsys/IBM would
be _infinitely_ better than a good day with Synplicity/Xilinx. I'm
quite certain that Dante has reserved a special place in Hell for the
Synplify designers who implemented automatic register replication
without a switch to turn it off. I've whined to Synopsys on several
occasions to include register replication; I'm not whining anymore."
- Roger Bethard, Cray Computers
"I am a bit dismayed by Synplicity's push to become an ASIC vendor.
(Weren't they one of the ones saying FPGAs will eat ASICs a few years
ago?) By putting emphasis on ASIC tools, we'll wind up with just one
more synthesis tool that is targeted mostly for ASICs, and oh, by the
way does FPGAs. They are the best tool right now for FPGAs because
a) they target a wider range of parts than any one else (who
else does Atmel, for example?)
b) they map the FPGA resources better than the others...
By that I mean the coarse grain features like the carry chains, block
RAMs, Xilinx SRL16 shift registers etc. That said, I think Synplicity
still holds an edge over Exemplar, and both are still miles beyond
FPGA Express, which in turn leaves vendor specific synthesis tools
like AHDL and Xilinx's XST in the dust."
- Ray Andraka of Andraka Consulting
"Exemplar vs Synplify: we had a visit from a Synplify salesman last year
who told me that Exemplar's run time increases exponentially with
design size but Synplify's increases linearly. I was very skeptical
so I sent him part of a design to play with. Suprise suprise he came
back with broadly the same run time and design size numbers that
Exemplar gives me. My feeling is that in terms of this kind of metric,
they must all do about the same. Choose between them on the basis of
support for your target, how quickly they fix bugs, and cost.
Currently I'm happily chugging along doing FPGA synthesis using
Exemplar, VHDL simulation using ModelSim, and some PCB work using
Mentor Board Station. Yes, Mentor gave us a "bundle" deal and none
of them are bad enough to make me look for long at anything else yet."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"We use Synplicity for FPGA synthesis, but DC for ASIC synthesis."
- Paul Schnizlein, Agere Systems
"For FPGA synthesis, it's a different story all together. I used
FPGA Express and Synplicity. Synplicity is far more easier to use
and handles RTL more gracefully than FPGA Express. Remember, we
write RTL targeted for ASICs, not for FPGA. FPGA for us is just an
intermediate step to ease verification."
- Himanshu Bhatnagar of Conexant
"For FPGAs, last I heard, Synplicity was kicking serious butt. Neither
Exemplar nor Synopsys was even close. It's an interesting strategy
that Ken McElvain's taken here. Rather than "attack a walled city"
that Synopsys dominates the ASIC synthesis market, he's taken over the
disgruntled peasants (FPGA users) living outside the walls (getting
not as good results from Synopsys as the ASIC folks). Only after
establishing a base of popular support out there has he begun to
assault the castle itself. Will it work? Too early to tell. But
I used to work with Ken. He's good, really good. There aren't many
people who could topple Synopsys DC, but he just might be one of them."
- Howard Landman, Vitesse Semiconductor
"We're using Synplicity for FPGAs, DC shell for ASICs. Both are the
best in their category."
- [ An Anon Engineer ]
"Right now, Exemplar is number 1, followed VERY closely by Synplicity
(they flip flop as number 1 frequently). FPGA Express is being dead
ended by Synopsys in favor of FPGA Compiler II, which still comes in
as a much more expensive product and a distant third in performance.
Synplicity is easiest to use, but you have a little more control with
Exemplar. I've settled on Synplicity and purchased "many" seats of
their tool, with a seat of Exemplar in my back pocket just in case.
The main reason for using FPGA Express was that it came basically for
free with Xilinx and Altera's design kits. However, Synopsys has
dead ended that that deal, so expect to see the number of users of
Synopsys FPGA product drop like a rock."
- [ Kenny, from South Park ]
"We use and like Synplicity for FPGA synthesis."
- Tom Coonan, Scientific Atlanta
"We have FPGA Express and Synplicity. Synplicity seems to kill FPGA
Express for our designs. Faster, smaller and the PCB engineers tell
me it's easier to use."
- Phil Kuglin, Credence Systems Corp.
"Synplicity is a great tool for FPGA sythesis. Have experienced a
number of bugs but nothing's a show stopper."
- Rick Price of Ensemble
"When I used Exemplar (again 4-5 years ago), it was easy to use but it
lacked more specific time constraint driven optimization."
- Menno Spijker, Mitel Semiconductor
"I like the Synplicity products and always have."
- Wayne Armbrust, Wayne Scott Associates
"Synplicity Vs. Exemplar:
We tend to put our design on an FPGA's before tape out for lab test
purposes. We evaluated Exemplar and decided that compared to
Synplicity it was a far more inferior product. It had a lot of
trouble compiling and fiting our design. I think the issues were
related to multiple clocks. I was not the one who did the eval so
I might be a bit fuzzy on the details."
- Tom David of Cygnal
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