SiliconBlue selects Synopsys as FPGA synthesis partner for iCE65 mobileFPGA family

MOUNTAIN VIEW & SANTA CLARA: SiliconBlue, a leader in ultra-low power, single-chip SRAM FPGAs, announced that it has chosen Synopsys Synplify Pro FPGA synthesis software as the synthesis tool of choice for its iCE65 family of mobileFPGA devices.

SiliconBlue will distribute with its iCEcube™ software a version of the Synplify Pro software optimized for iCE65 devices. This version of the Synplify Pro software will have a thorough understanding of the unique architectural structure of SiliconBlue's devices, bringing Synopsys' world-class synthesis and mapping technology to SiliconBlue customers.

"The unprecedented success of our mobileFPGA devices has driven us to improve our development tool platform. Providing reliable, state-of-the-art synthesis is vital to our customers' success," said Kapil Shankar, CEO of SiliconBlue. "We chose Synopsys as our synthesis tool partner because of Synplify Pro's well-known standard of excellence in quality of results, ease-of-use, and overall platform robustness."

The customized version of the Synplify Pro software will contain all of the features of the standard version, and will be tuned for the SiliconBlue mobile FPGA device architecture. Because of its understanding of the iCE65 family architecture, the Synplify Pro software will be able to generate a high-performing netlist optimized for low area utilization – an important consideration in low power applications.

Users of the Synplify Pro software can choose to generate either Verilog or VHDL netlists to be used for simulation from the software. The Synplify Pro software will also be tightly integrated and tested with SiliconBlue's iCEcube software.

Gary Meyers, vice president and general manager of Synopsys' Synplicity Business Group said: "SiliconBlue is clearly extending the range of applications for FPGAs into the handheld market, reaching designers that have not used programmable logic in the past. The combination of Synplify Pro and iCE65 mobileFPGA devices allows both of our companies to cultivate this new market together."