Welcome to Designer

The Designer interface offers both automated and manual flows, with the push-button flow achieving the optimal solution in the shortest cycle.  

Actel's Designer software is integrated with Libero IDE. Use the Designer software to implement your design.

To implement your design:

  1. Right-click the top level module in the Design Hierarchy and choose Run Designer, or click Designer in the Design Flow window. Designer starts and loads your files from Libero.

  2. Set up your device. From the Tools menu, select Device Selection. In the Device Selection Wizard, select the die, package, speed grade, voltage, and operating conditions. Make your selections and click Next to complete the steps

  3. In Designer, click Compile in the design flow window. The log window displays the utilization of the selected device. When compile has completed, the Compile box in the Design Flow window turns green.

  4. Once you have successfully compiled your design, you can use Designer’s User's tool to optimize your design. To start a tool, simply click it in the flow tree. The tools include:

 

Tool

Function

Supported Families

PinEditor

Package-level floorplanner and I/O attribute editor

All

ChipPlanner

Logic viewer, placement- and floorplanning tool

SX-A, eX, Axcelerator,ProASIC, ProASICPLUS, ProASIC3, ProASIC3E

ChipEditor

Logic viewer and placement tool

SX, MX, 3200DX, ACT3, ACT2, ACT1

NetlistViewer

Design schematic viewer

All

SmartPower

Power analysis tool

Axcelerator, ProASIC, ProASICPLUS, ProASIC3, ProASIC3E, SX-A, eX

SmartTime and Timer

Static timing analysis and constraints editor (SmartTime only)

All

I/O Attribute Editor

Edit I/O attributes, layout

SX-A, eX, Axcelerator, ProASIC, ProASICPLUS, ProASIC3, ProASIC3E

 

  1. Click Layout in the Design Flow Window to place-and-route your design.

  2. Click Back-Annotate in the Design Flow Window. Choose SDF as CAE type and appropriate simulation language. Select Netlist in the Export Additional Files area and Click OK. If you are exporting files post-layout, Designer exports <top>_ba.vhd and <top>_ba.sdf to your Libero project. The “_ba” is added by Libero to identify these for back-annotation purposes. <top> is the top root name. Pre-layout exported files do not contain “_ba” and are exported simply as *.vhd and *.sdf. The files are visible from the File Manager, under Implementation Files.

  3. Click Programming File in the design flow tree if you wish to create a programming file for your design. This step can be performed later after you are satisfied with the back-annotated timing simulation.

  4. From the File menu, select Exit. Click Yes to save the design before closing Designer. Designer saves all of the design information in an *.adb file. The <project>.adb file is visible in Libero’s File Manger, in the Implementation Files folder. To re-open this file at any time, simply double-click it.