Tektronix and FS2 introduce FPGAView software for Tektronix MSO4000 mixed signal oscilloscopes
(Product News, 14 Sep 2007 )
Tektronix, Inc., a leading worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation and First Silicon Solutions (FS2), a division of MIPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIPS), have announced FPGAView software for configuring and real-time debugging of Altera and Xilinx FPGA devices using the recently announced Tektronix MSO4000 Series mixed signal oscilloscopes.
The new MSO4000 family of mixed signal oscilloscopes combine three powerful capabilities — an advanced real-time oscilloscope and logic analyzer, and the breakthrough Wave Inspector waveform search engine — into one small and lightweight portable device for embedded design and debug.
FPGAView software makes debugging FPGA designs faster than ever. In addition to the MSO4000, FPGAView is also available for the Tektronix TLA5000 and TLA7000 Logic Analyzers. The once tedious process of defining and routing the FPGA signals to the external logic analyzer connector, and mapping channels for the MSO or logic analyzer, are now handled by the FPGAView software. Using FPGAView, design engineers can quickly and easily measure signals inside their Altera and Xilinx FPGA design and select which group of internal signals to probe without having to recompile their design. The program also automatically updates the MSO or TLA logic analyzer channel names with the internal FPGA signal names selected.
“We are pleased to be working with FS2 to bring FPGAView software support to the MSO4000 Series mixed signal oscilloscope family,” said Roy Siegel, Director Marketing and Strategy, Value Scope Product Line, Tektronix. “Designers are always looking for easier, more productive means of debugging their FPGA designs. FPGAView and the Tektronix MSO4000 Series give to design teams the ability to quickly and easily view the internal operation of their FPGA designs and allows them to correlate these signals with other signals on their board.”
"Our partnership with Tektronix has proven to be an excellent combination, leveraging FS2’s expertise in debugging IP and software along with the leading instrumentation features and capabilities from Tektronix,” said Rick Leatherman, vice president and general manager of FS2. “The FPGAView product availability coupled with the MSO family of oscilloscopes will enable more customers than ever to increase their productivity and reduce debugging time when designing with Altera and Xilinx FPGAs.”
FPGAView runs on a host Windows-based PC and communicates with the MSO over Ethernet or a USB link, in conjunction with the TekVISA OpenChoice Instrument Manager software. For the Tektronix Logic Analyzer (TLA) family, the FPGAView software can either run on the analyzer or on a separate PC that communicates with the TLA over Ethernet.
The FPGAView software package works with any version of MSO4000 series software and Tektronix TLA5000 or TLA7000 series with Tektronix logic analyzer software version 4.3 or later. Altera FPGAView requires the appropriate JTAG probe for programming the Altera FPGA, either a First Silicon Solutions System Navigator probe, or Altera ByteBlaster or USB Blaster. It also requires the use of Altera Quartus II 5.1 or later for the Logic Analyzer Interface (LAI). Xilinx FPGAView requires a Xilinx Platform Cable USB programming cable and Xilinx ISE ISE 8.2i or later.
