Lattice Semiconductor Corporation announced an array of advancements to its software platforms, debuting new versions of Lattice Diamond(R) and iCEcube2(TM) design tools. The updated software prominently features several notable advancements that improve power calculations and design productivity aimed at the creation of mobile and consumer, communication, and industrial systems that undergo fast design cycles, demand power efficiency, and have aggressive cost constraints. The updated Diamond Power Calculator contains a matrix that displays the power consumption of each block and each power supply.

Also, the detailed power analysis for multiple design implementations can now be easily compared side by side in a new chart, extending the benefits of design exploration. For power-aware FPGAs such as the Lattice MachXO2(TM) device, designers, designers can view the detailed power analyses for the two power modes side by side. Lattice Diamond software is designed to simply, create, and explore different design implementations to achieve the aggressive design goals of low cost, high volume designs.

New algorithms further speed timing closure for multipass runs. By dynamically fine tuning the netlist during placement to meet the characteristics of the device, innovative algorithms for the LatticeECP3(TM) FPGA family achieve faster performance in the target device without incurring area penalties and increasing cost. Moreover, timing reports now include enhanced information on unconstrained timing paths that accelerates the analysis of design constraints and timing results.

Two versions of the Lattice Diamond 2.1 design software can be downloaded from the Lattice website for Windows and Linux. Once downloaded and installed, the software can be used with either the Lattice Diamond free license or the Lattice Diamond subscription license. The Lattice Diamond free license can be generated immediately upon request from the Lattice website.

It provides free access to many popular Lattice devices such as the MachXO2 and Platform Manager(TM) families. It also fully enables Synopsys Synplify Pro for Lattice synthesis as well as the Aldec Lattice Edition II mixed-language simulator. Priced at $895 per year, the Lattice Diamond subscription license includes all Lattice FPGAs including the LatticeECP3 FPGA family.