Software extends serial I/O debug capabilities to support 65nm Virtex-5 LXT FPGAs

(Product News, 8 Feb 2007)

Xilinx announced the availability of its ChipScope Pro 9.1i software and ChipScope Serial I/O Toolkit 9.1i for on-chip FPGA verification. This version leverages the advanced 65nm ExpressFabric architecture of the Virtex-5 platform family, supporting up to 60% faster clock speeds as compared to the previous 90nm FPGA version, according to the company.

The release simplifies real-time measurement and verification of the RocketIO multi-gigabit transceiver (MGT) channels available in the Virtex-4 FXT and Virtex-5 LXT platform FPGAs. With support for all major serial I/O standards including PCI ExpressR, Serial RapidIO, Gigabit Ethernet, XAUI, and Fibre Channel, the ChipScope Serial I/O Toolkit allows short setup and debug times for serial I/O designs.

The ChipScope Pro 9.1i release inserts logic analyzer, bus analyzer, or virtual I/O low-profile software cores directly into a user's design. This allows users to easily capture and view any internal signal or node, including embedded hard or soft processors at or near operating system speed through the programming interface, freeing up pins in the design.

ChipScope Pro software offers a methodology for rapid verification of high speed FPGA designs with less impact, making it easier to meet timing goals. When combined with the Virtex-4 family of FPGAs, the previous version of ChipScope Pro software could capture signals up to 315 MHz. With optimizations to exploit the features of the silicon architecture of the Virtex-5 platform FPGA family, ChipScope 9.1i software can capture signals up to 500MHz.

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