SystemCrafter Joins Xilinx ESL Initiative

Working at the Electronic System-Level (ESL) is set to revolutionize the design of hardware and systems. Not only does it allow designers to work at a higher level of abstraction, improving time to market and reliability, but it also enables hardware to be designed by programmers and scientists. Combining ESL software with FPGAs enables designers to go from a conceptual C++ project to working hardware in hours.

“There is a growing interest in ESL design among FPGA designers,” said Steve Lass, director of Software Product Marketing at Xilinx. “The aim of our initiative is to improve awareness among the FPGA designer community, and to help our ecosystem partners expand the market for their solutions. We are working closely with SystemCrafter to enhance the value of their SystemC-to-VHDL software for programmable hardware platforms by improving the quality of results and integration with Xilinx software tools.”

SystemCrafter’s software automatically synthesises hardware designs written in SystemC to VHDL. The VHDL can then be used with Xilinx FPGA design tools to target Xilinx FPGAs. This enables engineers and programmers to design, debug and simulate hardware and systems using their existing C++ development environment.

Dr Jonathan Saul, SystemCrafter CEO, commented, “We are delighted to be working with Xilinx as part of their ESL initiative. Our vision is to provide a tool that can bridge the gap between SystemC and FPGAs, at an affordable price. This enables system-level designers to implement their designs quickly and reliably, and opens up the use of FPGAs to a new market of C and C++ programmers.”

The Xilinx ESL Initiative is a multi-faceted program aimed at proliferating high-level design methodologies and tool flows for FPGAs. The goal is to make it easier for hardware designers and software programmers to leverage Xilinx programmable devices for their next generation systems. Xilinx and participating companies are focused on improving ease of use, quality of results and interoperability standards through technical collaboration, cooperative marketing and joint educational activities.