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Two software companies are collaborating on a project to provide graphical and C-language tools for high-performance, field-programmable-gate array (FPGA)-based computing for applications such as security, image processing, geophysics, financial computing, and bioinformatics. This initiative by Starbridge Systems in Midvale, Utah, and Impulse Accelerated Technologies in Kirkland, Wash., includes the release of a platform support package to help integrate between the Impulse CoDeveloper C-to-FPGA compiler and the Starbridge Viva graphical entry tools. The companies are working together to develop software to enable the Impulse C-to-FPGA compiler tools to generate VHDL and Verilog hardware descriptions that are compatible with the Viva graphical tools. The result is the free intermixing of C-language descriptions for accelerated algorithms with optimized FPGA blocks in the Viva programming environment, and the synthesizing and downloading to the FPGA-based target. Supported platform targets include systems available from Silicon Graphics, Nallatech, Pico Computing, and Digilent. Research institutions, government agencies, and commercial organizations have an increasing need to accelerate large, computationally intensive applications to decrease processing times and reduce power requirements, company officials say. “Developers of high-performance computing applications have a need for system-level design tools that allow them to take advantage of the massive levels of parallelism available in FPGA-based systems,” says Kent Gilson, founder and president of Starbridge. For more information contact Starbridge Systems online at www.starbridgesystems.com and Impulse Accelerated Technologies at www.ImpulseC.com.