Chuck Murray of Reed sister publication Design News talked to developers Opal Kelly recently about a module for the Spartan-3 FPGA from Xilinx. While the product managers were most interested in talking about the XEM3050 module itself, which is used in any M2M application for image processing, GPS, and mobile phone displays, there seems to be just as much innovation in the development software called FrontPanel.

FrontPanel is intended to ease the understanding of integrating USB 2.0 into a system. It is offered as a free standalone application that provides XML-based Virtual Control Components, and configuration capabilities for FPGAs and Phase-Locked Loops. In addition to the standalone tool, FrontPanel also is offered with Application Programming Interface libraries for C++, Python, Java, and Windows DLL. The DLL in the latter version can be used to communicate directly with Windows-based tools such as LabView and Matlab.

In recent weeks, we've seen concern expressed that gate-level and RTL-level EDA tools for FPGAs have hit a roadblock, which could be one more factor contributing to a slowdown in FPGA growth during 2009. But system-level products like the free tool with Opal Kelly's module stand as proof that innovation is by no means dead in support tools for FPGAs.