Agilent Technologies offers FPGA dynamic probe application

Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the industry's first commercially available dynamic probe application for logic analyzer-based debug of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The Agilent B4655A FPGA dynamic probe logic-analysis application yields significant productivity improvements for engineering teams debugging Xilinx FPGAs, including the Virtex-II, Virtex-II Pro and Spartan-3 families. The new application interacts with an on-chip virtual probing technology to enable logic analyzers to measure up to 64 internal FPGA signals for each debug pin compared to traditional logic analyzers, which measure a single internal FPGA signal for each debug pin. The new logic analysis application enables engineers to select new groups of internal signals to probe without requiring time-consuming design recompiles. "Agilent is building on a long history of logic analysis leadership with this announcement," said Steve Lass, director of Software Product Marketing at Xilinx. "This solution helps R&D engineers shorten debugging time, cuts development costs and accelerates time to market for products built using Xilinx FPGAs." The FPGA dynamic probe is compatible with the new Agilent 16900 Series logic analyzers, as well as the Agilent 1680 Series standalone and 1690 Series PC-hosted logic analyzers. Source: PCBnewsline