Altium reveals 'board-on-chip' technology. (Embeds IC cores, software on FPGAs).

SYDNEY -- Altium Ltd. (altium.com) in May previewed a technology that combines software and hardware design in an integrated design environment. The company believes the technology will enable engineers to use board-level design methodologies to both design and implement an entire digital system--including embedded microprocessor cores and the software that runs on them--onto an FPGA.

Altium debuted the technology, called "board-on-chip" design, at Programmable World in May. Executive director Bruce Edwards said that Altium had not yet implemented the BoC technology into a tool, and that user feedback will guide the development of the tool.

"We have proof of concept," Edwards told PCD&M. "We're not sure what the box looks like."

The BoC system that Altium showed at Programmable World included mixed schematic/VHDL design capture, integrated software development; schematic component libraries with a range of pre-synthesized components, primitives and macro libraries for all Xilinx and Altera device families; "virtual" instruments such as logic analyzers and frequency counters that can be built into the design for test purposes; and a BoC development board loaded with an FPGA that functions as a breadboard and permits implementation of the design directly from the engineer's PC onto the FPGA.

"What makes this technology a real breakthrough is that it will provide a fully integrated and self-contained system for FPGA-based design that will be accessible to the vast majority of engineers," said joint chief executive Nick Martin in a press release. "This BoC technology represents a new EDA paradigm and has the potential to significantly lower development costs and provide huge benefits to engineers in terms of time to market and design flexibility."

Altium believes the BoC technology permits a more flexible approach to partitioning the design between hardware and software. Engineers retain the ability to choose a hardware or software solution to any particular problem throughout the design process. A new prototype is generated each time the design is downloaded to the development board, meaning that systems can be more fully developed and tested before fabricating the first PCB prototype.

BoC could supplant ASICs, Altium told PCD&M. "The next generation needs a platform that supports products that are smaller [and] FPGA is that platform. What's been lacking is an integrated hardware/software design technology." Altium says BoC moves the design and passive components into the chip--the FPGA--and does so in a way that is transparent to the board-level designer. If realized, BoC could obsolete the need for multiple design teams.

Also, because more of the design is implemented inside the FPGA, including the processor, the final PCB design and fabrication can be simpler, reducing costs and time, Altium says.

PROOF OF CONCEPT Altium says its new BoC technology moves PCB design and passives into FPGAs.

Current design flow

PCB must be finished and prototyped before final software development and testing, forcing hardware design to be closed off early in the design process.

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BoC design flow

Software can be developed on "real" hardware as soon as it is captured, allowing unlimited prototype iterations and enabling hardware design to continue during software development.

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