EDA ACCESS Partner Profiles: Impulse Accelerated Technologies
Overview
Impulse C™ is a function library that simplifies the development of highly parallel algorithms and programs for Altera® FPGAs and other programmable platforms. Complete with a compiler and debug tools, Impulse C is compatible with standard ANSI C. Impulse C allows embedded systems designers and software programmers to take advantage of programmable and reconfigurable hardware for application acceleration.
Impulse C is distinct from other C-based synthesis front-ends in that it provides an efficient and flexible programming model for mixed processor and FPGA platforms. Impulse C is not a hardware description language (HDL) based on C; instead, it is a set of intrinsic functions and datatypes that allows applications written in standard C—the language of choice for embedded system designers—to be mapped efficiently onto coarse-grained parallel architectures that include standard processors along with programmable hardware elements.
The Impulse C tools include hardware/software co-simulation tools as well as proprietary C-to-RTL scheduling/optimizing technology used to map application elements to hardware via standard HDL synthesis tools. Impulse C tools operate within standard embedded programming environments including Metrowerks CodeWarrior, Visual Studio and GCC. They are easily adaptable to other standard C/C++ or EDA development environments.
Tools
Table 1 lists design tools supporting Altera devices.
| Table 1. Design Tools Supporting Altera Devices |
| Design Flow |
Tool Name |
Comments |
| System Level |
| Hardware/Software Partitioning & Co-Simulation |
Impulse C™ CoDeveloper |
Includes Impulse C libraries for Visual Studio, Codewarrior or GCC integration, Application Manager, Application Monitor and CoBuilder scheduler and RTL generator. Outputs synthesizable VHDL and Verilog. Automatically creates SOPC Builder interfaces for use with Altera Nios® II processors.
|
| High-Level Design Tools |
Impulse C CoBuilder |
Translates algorithms expressed in ANSI C (with Impulse C intrinsic functions) to optimized RTL, ready for processing in standard FPGA synthesis tools. Performs instruction scheduling and pipelining, generates RTL appropriate for specific FPGA and programmable platform targets. |
Contact Information
For additional information, contact Impulse Accelerated Technologies at:
Impulse Accelerated Technologies
550 Kirkland Way, Suite 200
Kirkland, WA 98033
Tel. (425) 605-9543 or toll free (866) 4impulse
Fax. (425) 605-9544
Email: info@ImpulseC.com
URL: www.ImpulseC.com
|
Literature
> 
