Formal verification tool maker OneSpin Solutions has made its 360 EC (equivalence checker) available to the FPGA market.

The pushbutton EC FGPA tool helps FPGA designers ensure that RTL (register transfer level) logic continues to operate properly when RTL undergoes synthesis to an FPGA netlist and when that netlist begins to operate in an FPGA architecture.

The tool follows start-up OneSpin’s first offerings, the OneSpin 360 MV (module-verifier) property checker and OneSpin EC Asic, which debuted last year.

The MV tool, which Infineon Technologies developed and tested, targets IP (intellectual-property)-versus-RTL verification for Asic and SoC (system-on-chip) designs, and the OneSpin EC ASIC primarily targets RTL-to-gates verification.

Wolfram Büttner, OneSpin’s managing director and chief technology officer, says that 360 EC is the first commercial offering that effectively allows designers to check that a synthesis tool has correctly implemented a designer’s creations—that is, that the synthesis is functionally equal to the design.

OneSpin 360 EC FGPA is largely a pushbutton technology, which users run first after FPGA synthesis to ensure that the netlist functions according to the user’s intent in RTL. Users can then ensure that the layout and netlist are functionally equivalent.

For prototyping Asics, users can check that the RTL for the FPGA is the same as the RTL for the ASIC. In all these use models, the tool flag areas that are not equivalent.

In some cases, the tool highlights code or a section of the schematic in which it suspects errors have occurred; in other cases, the tool indicates approximately where an error occurs and pops up a waveform so that users can better pinpoint exact areas where mismatches occur.

The tool currently supports Synplicity and Altera Quartus II software environments and is targets primarily on high-end FPGAs, particularly those from Xilinx and Altera.

Prices start at $137,500 for a one-year subscription. Many FGPA designers expect free or low-cost FPGA-programming tools, but the company’s president and chief executive officer, Peter Feist, says that OneSpin 360 FPGA targets the five per cent of FPGA users who are accustomed to Asic-design flows and Asic-tool prices.