Altera and ARM Expand Strategic Partnership for SoC Development Tools

Through the expanded agreement announced today, the ARM DS-5 Altera Edition toolkit is being enlarged to include the following additional tools:

• ARM Compiler 5 and ARM Compiler 6, providing the only build tool chains specifically designed to optimize software for the Cortex®-A9 and Cortex-A53 processors in Altera’s SoC portfolio

• Debug support for ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor in Stratix® 10 SoC, including FPGA-Adaptive Debug capabilities for removing the debug barrier between the multi-core subsystem and FPGA fabric

The companies also agreed to a long-term OEM agreement for DS-5 Altera Edition to provide support for all future ARM-based Altera SoC devices, ensuring a consistent, industry-leading software development platform across Altera’s portfolio of SoC FPGAs.

“DS-5, in combination with ARM processors and ARM CoreSight™ debug technology, delivers advanced solutions for software development on SoC FPGAs,” said Hobson Bullman, general manager, Development Solutions Group, ARM. “This agreement with Altera enables their customers to access the newest tools, minimizing their development cost, risk and time-to-market for future ARM-based devices.”

Chris Balough, senior director, SoC Product Marketing, Altera said, “Altera customers have responded overwhelmingly to the critical productivity advantage we introduced with DS-5 Altera Edition and FPGA-Adaptive Debug support, and we have shipped thousands of licenses. Our extended OEM agreement with ARM enables us to provide an even richer toolkit while maintaining the same low price. Developing with SoC FPGAs has just become even more compelling for our customers.”

ARM DS-5 Altera Edition Yields Unprecedented Developer Productivity ARM Development Studio 5 is ARM’s flagship tools solution for embedded software development. ARM DS-5 Altera Edition is a complete tools solution exclusively for Altera SoCs, sold and distributed by Altera, and optimized to remove the debugging barrier between the integrated multi-core CPU subsystem and the FPGA fabric. The new DS-5 Altera Edition provides a substantial productivity gain for product development based on Altera SoC FPGAs. Key features include the following:

• Debug and trace support for 32-bit dual-core Cortex-A9 CPUs in Cyclone® V, Arria® V and Arria 10 SoCs and 64-bit quad-core Cortex-A53 in Stratix 10 SoCs

• ARM Compiler 5 (ARMv7) and ARM Compiler 6 (ARMv8) tool chains

• FPGA-Adaptive Debug support for SoC FPGAs, including software register views of IP programmed into the FPGA and cross-triggering between CPU and FPGA logic domains for hardware/software co-debugging

• Advanced trace, including time-correlated events in FPGA fabric with software events and processor instruction trace

• DS-5 Streamline™ performance analyzer for identification and correction of system-level bottlenecks

Altera SoC Design Resources

Building a product with a strong architecture is key to ensuring system design meets performance requirements now and in the future. Altera provides many SoC design resources to help designers make the right choices.