Start-up OptNgn Offers a Floating Point VHDL Library as Open Source

Parameterized Mathematical Operators are Optimized for FPGA Designs

Portland, Oregon -- April 16, 2008 -- OptNgn today announced that it is offering a floating point VHDL library under the GPLv3 Open Source License. FPGA designers can now save months of coding and debug time by using these floating point libraries instead of creating the VHDL from scratch. 

The parameterized floating point operators being introduced are in three groups: Arithmetic, Transcendental and Trigonometric, shown below:

Also included with the VHDL source code are test-benches, ModelSim command files and Xilinx synthesis scripts to aid in verification and integration to an FPGA project. Users can expect these operators to run at 200MHz when using the Xilinx Virtex-5 series. To download the latest version of the floating point library visit Source Forge at: http://libhdlfltp.sourceforge.net

This library is a sanctioned modification and enhancement of the respected and vetted FPLibrary developed by the Arénaire project, at ENS Lyon.

“I see tremendous synergy between the OptNgn libraries and our C-to-FPGA compiler,” said David Pellerin, CTO of Impulse Accelerated Technologies. “The combination of hardware compiler and optimized libraries enables hardware accelerated embedded systems for image processing, DSP and general purpose FPGA acceleration.”

“Co-processor accelerators enable HPC companies and FPGA designers to deliver the next breakthrough in computing. We’re making that happen now,” said Alan Coppola, PhD, president of OptNgn.

User Feedback

“FPGAs are powerful chips for performing floating-point algorithms and this library makes that implementation easy.  Due to this combination, the OptNgn floating-point library is a transformational technology for the high-performance computing industry.  From first-hand experience, this is a clean, well-architected, efficient, and useful library for all HDL designers,” states Spanta Ashjaee, President of Valley Digital Technologies.

About Alan Coppola, PhD

Alan founded the company in 2006 and serves as president. He has more than 20 years of senior-level corporate experience at Cypress Semiconductor, Mentor Graphics, and Intel where he successfully developed and launched a number of EDA platforms and products used by design engineers around the world, including the first VHDL programmable logic platform.   He has worked extensively in creating language-based software systems for hardware design, using the latest large-scale optimization research knowledge for all aspects of that tool chain. He has advanced research-level knowledge of the mathematics, algorithms, electrical engineering and computer science needed to accelerate applications in many areas.  Alan holds a B.S. from the University of Connecticut, and M.A and Ph.D. degrees from SUNY at Binghamton, all in mathematics. He holds two patents, has published numerous technical papers, and has taught computer engineering, computer science, and mathematics courses at the graduate level.  He has led a number of university technology transfer efforts involving programmable logic software.

About OptNgn Software, LLC

OptNgn supplies FPGA acceleration libraries and services to FPGA designers and HPC companies allowing them to greatly speed up their applications. Visit the company online at www.optngn.com .