Xilinx XtremeDSP solution development tools deliver new levels of DSP and ESL design capabilities

Xilinx has announced the availability of versions 10.1 of the System Generator for DSP tool and the AccelDSP synthesis tool, said to be the industry-leading development environment delivered by the Xilinx XtremeDSP solution. With support for the new Virtex-5 FXT platform, the newest release delivers the industry’s first ESL design methodology to enable a direct FPGA implementation path for DSP algorithms described using imaginary and complex numbers. The tools also deliver improved support for interfacing to external video sources through the MicroBlaze embedded processor, as well as the first FPGA based hardware co-simulation for the MATLAB modeling environment.

Support for Native Complex Numbers
The AccelDSP synthesis tool, Xilinx’s groundbreaking high-level synthesis software, is now the first ESL design tool available that provides a direct FPGA implementation path for DSP algorithms described using imaginary and complex numbers. Support of native complex numbers enables algorithm developers to target Xilinx FPGAs early in development with minimal source code modifications during prototyping, feasibility analysis and design exploration stages.
Complex arithmetic is used extensively in DSP algorithms for communications, defense and medical applications. Unlike C, VHDL or Verilog, MATLAB provides built-in support for the imaginary unit “i” or “j,” complex data types and complex arithmetic expressions using these datatypes. This nomenclature can be used to describe complex algorithms with 75 to 85 percent fewer lines of code.

Improved Video Support
With version 10.1 of the System Generator for DSP tool, the XtremeDSP solution now includes improved support for interfacing to external video sources through the MicroBlaze embedded processor. The Xilinx Embedded Development Kit (EDK) now also supports a new Video Frame Buffer Controller (VFBC) IP core that allows reading and writing of buffered video data in two-dimensional sets regardless of the size or organization of the external memory transactions. This VFBC is implemented as part of an embedded system that interfaces to external memories and video sources.

System Generator 10.1 software supports the generation of custom peripherals for Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS) to enable asynchronous clocking between the embedded and video processing sub-systems. This clocking scheme allows the video source and processing hardware to exist in separate clock domains typical of real world video applications.

Hardware Co-Simulation
Xilinx has introduced the industry’s first FPGA based hardware co-simulation for the MATLAB modeling environment. Developers of FPGA based DSP applications can now verify their designs running on Xilinx hardware platforms while leveraging all the signal generation and analysis capabilities of the MATLAB simulation environment. Computationally intensive algorithms, such as bit error rate (BER) testing of wireless transmissions, simulate up to 1,000 times faster using this verification methodology.

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