Ideally, the development phase of a new FPGA architecture would
make use of a reliable set of mapping tools to produce accurate
performance evaluations of proposed designs. Unfortunately, given
the quick production time frames faced by most developers, tool
construction is often postponed until after many architectural
features have been frozen. To satisfy the need for fast tool
prototyping, we have designed Emerald, a powerful
architecture-driven system for quick development of FPGA tools. At
its heart Emerald provides the basic features needed in all FPGA
systems -- logic block analysis, synthesis and technology mapping,
global placement and partitioning, and detailed placement and
routing. Its CAD environment provides an efficient way to
thoroughly specify an FPGA's routing and logic block architectures,
as well as architecture-specific metrics to tailor placement and
routing. Moreover, Emerald's parameterized schematic specifications
allow architectural variations to be quickly captured and
evaluated.
Emerald Publications
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- The Definitive Emerald Paper
- Darren C. Cronquist and Larry McMurchie. "Emerald
- An Architecture-Driven Tool Compiler for FPGAs", To
appear in Proceedings of the 1996 ACM/SIGDA Fourth International
Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays , February
1996.
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- The Router used in Emerald
- Larry McMurchie and Carl Ebeling, "PathFinder:
A Negotiation-Based Performance-Driven Router for FPGAs",
Proceedings of the 1995 ACM Third International Symposium on
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays Aided Design , pp. 111-117,
February 1995.
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Researchers
Darren
Cronquist
Carl
Ebeling
Larry
McMurchie