Lattice Semiconductor Corporation announced that Allyanz Pty Ltd. will represent Lattice and its full range of products in Australia and New Zealand.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation announced Version 8.0 of its ispLEVER(R) FPGA design tool suite, which includes many enhancements for the design of high speed double data rate (DDR) interfaces for the LatticeECP3(TM) FPGA family. These enhancements include automatic interface code generation to increase design productivity and reduce coding errors, as well as enhanced timing analysis that provides more transparency to circuit timing details. The IPexpress(TM) tool now can generate the HDL for the most appropriate generic DDR interface based on user requirements such as direction, speed and bus width. This HDL has been specifically designed and validated for high performance, robust operation. For the ECP3 family, certain DDR interfaces can now be implemented with much higher pin layout flexibility. The IPexpress tool can now also optionally generate the complete I/O-specific circuitry for proprietary DDR memory interfaces, allowing designers to focus solely on the controller logic of their DDR1 and DDR2 DRAM interfaces. Continuous improvement and innovation in place and route algorithms enable ispLEVER 8.0 software to complete large, congested designs 30% faster than with the previous ispLEVER 7.2 SP2 release. Lattice continues to enhance and expand support for the innovative open source 32-bit RISC LatticeMico32(TM) ecosystem. The GNU compiler (GCC) has been upgraded to Version 4.3.0, which enables higher system performance and more flexible code deployment options. The Tri-speed MAC IP can now be interconnected into higher throughput configurations. The component library now includes a Dual Port on-chip memory to enable high speed information passing between Wishbone bus masters, and an enhanced SPI Flash Controller allows both read and write access. The ispLEVER 8.0 tool suite for Windows, LINUX and UNIX users is available immediately without charge for customers with active design tool maintenance contracts. Pricing for the full ispLEVER design tool suite starts at $1,295 for the Windows version.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation announced it will collaborate with Beyond Semiconductor in the development of compiler tools for Lattice's soft processors. The collaboration will include updates and performance improvements for Lattice's embedded processor IP compilers and development tools. Lattice's LatticeMico8 embedded microcontroller and LatticeMico32 embedded microprocessor are optimized for implementation in Lattice FPGAs and PLDs.