Altera and ARM expand strategic partnership for SoC development tools

ARM TechCon, SAN JOSE, USA: Altera Corp. and ARM announced a long-term agreement to expand their strategic partnership for best-in-class embedded software development tools for SoC FPGAs.

In 2012, Altera and ARM announced the creation of the ARM® Development Studio 5 (DS-5) Altera Edition, which pioneered the invention of FPGA-Adaptive Debugging for SoC FPGAs. 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, GM, 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.”