History

The DARPA funded R&D project which led to the development of Forge and the creation of LavaLogic is transitioning to a new stage in life. Xilinx, Inc. has acquired the technology, people and all associated rights of LavaLogic from TSI TelSys and is integrating Forge with their suite of FPGA design tools.

LavaLogic began as the advanced research group within TSI TelSys, charged with providing the technology needed to develop and deploy easily customizable high performance satellite ground systems. This work began with hardware design, but eventually led to a focus on design tools which resulted in Forge.

A relationship with Xilinx was established from the beginning. The initial hardware design, which still powers many of TSI TelSys' high end solutions, was a VME board populated with Xilinx FPGAs. The next generation moved to the PCI bus, providing a lower cost solution. Java was being used to develop both control and data processing software.

The demand for customization required a tightly coupled hardware and software solution which could provide better performance and maintain flexibility. This led to a second generation PCI card with reprogrammable hardware resources and an embedded processor. Taking inspiration from software design tools, an application called Object Builder was developed to build modular hardware elements. Object Builder addressed some productivity problems, but the real issue of system design became apparent -- a lack of adequate hardware/software co-design tools.

The Java Virtual Machine pointed the way to a solution. Java bytecodes are a platform neutral and highly analyzable algorithmic representation. A technology demonstration dubbed Java-to-gates (JTOG) confirmed that it was possible to derive reasonable hardware implementations by compiling a software language.

TSI TelSys continued to support the development of the technology, but decided to split the group off into a separate business unit. LavaLogic was founded. As Forge progressed from a proof-of-concept to a beta product, LavaLogic pursued various business options which would allow the technology to become a commercial product.

In June, we were approached with the option of acquiring LavaLogic. On July 7th, negotiations with TSI TelSys concluded with Xilinx purchasing Forge technology and all related materials, and welcoming the members of LavaLogic as new employees.

Xilinx Press Release
TSI TelSys Press Release