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System Generator Overview

The Xilinx System Generator bridges the gap between your conceptual architectural design and the actual implementation in a Xilinx FPGA. The System Generator for Simulink, developed in partnership with The MathWorks, Inc enables designers to develop high-performance DSP systems for Xilinx FPGAs using the popular MATLAB/Simulink products from The MathWorks, Inc.

As a plug-in to the Simulink modeling software, the Xilinx System Generator provides a bit-accurate model of FPGA circuits, and automatically generates a synthesizable Hardware Description Language (HDL) code and a testbench. This HDL design can then be synthesized for implementation in Xilinx Virtexô and Spartan®-II FPGAs. In a single source code you have an abstract representation of your system-level design which can be easily transformed into a gate-level representation. Additionally, automatic generation of testbench enables design verification upon implementation.

To maximize predictability, density, and performance, the System Generator automatically maps the system design to Xilinx optimized LogiCORE modules.
 

For more details on the Xilinx System Generator for Simulink, please read the product description.
 

 Design Flow

You can significantly reduce development time by quickly iterating between a system representation and a hardware representation of your designs. This is especially important for DSP applications because many system-level design tradeoffs are based upon the results of the hardware implementations. As a result, if you are new to FPGAs, you can use familiar tools from The MathWorks and Xilinx to apply FPGA technology to your DSP applications.

Xilinx Blockset

The Xilinx Blockset enables bit-true and cycle-true modeling, with Xilinx FPGA hardware as the target. It includes parametric blocks for DSP, arithmetic, and logic functions like FFTs, FIR Filters, Multipliers, Memories, and gateway blocks to communicate with the MATLAB environment, where you also have access to the extensive set of Simulink libraries. Each of the Xilinx blocks may be configured to many possible parameters and properties. Blocks are provided with a S-function for the Simulink representation and a synthesizable VHDL or LogiCOREs.

Special tokens are also made available to support user-defined black boxes and to invoke the System Generator interface to the Xilinx FPGA software. The Xilinx Blockset "Black Box" token gives the ability to create specialized functions that may not exist in the current blockset and use them within the rest of the system.

System Generator Software

The Xilinx System Generator includes software to enable simulation, translation, and verification.

• The translation software is invoked from Simulink through the System Generator token and is used to generate VHDL code and cores for all the Xilinx Blockset elements on that sheet and on any sheets beneath it in its porject hierarchy. FPGA designs are generated using Xilinx LogiCOREs, ensuring that the most efficient code is being generated.
• A VHDL testbench and data vectors can also be created for the generated design. These vectors represent the inputs and expected outputs seen in the Simulink simulation step and allow you to imediately notice any discrepancies between the Simulink simulation and the VHDL simulation.

Tool Requirements & Recommendations

Vendor	Tool/ Partners	Options
System Design Tools
	DSP Design Suite R11.1 or R12 MATLAB V5.3.1 or V6.0 Simulink V3.0 or V4.0 Signal Processing Toolbox DSP Blockset. Communications Toolbox (Strongly recommended) Communications Blockset (Strongly recommended)	Evaluation Purchase
FPGA Implementation Tools
	The Xilinx System Generator for Simulink® Alliance Elite/Partners V3.1i Service Pack #2 IP update #2 Note: The Xilinx CORE Generator System, which is included with the Xilinx Alliance Series software package, is required for the Xilinx System Generator.	Evaluation Purchase
Synthesis Tools (Select One)
	Synplify PRO V6.0	Evaluation Purchase
or	or
	Leonardo V1999.1h	Evaluation Purchase
Hardware Simulation Tools (Optional)
	VHDL simulator: ModelSim EE V5.3d	Evaluation Purchase