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You can read this article in EETimes here.
EDA software being sold by Walmart
By Dylan McGrath, EE Times
SAN FRANCISCO — Don't let the stagnant revenues fool you — EDA software is going mainstream. It is now being sold by Walmart, the world's largest retailer.
EDA vendor Aldec Inc., a provider of mixed-language simulation and ASIC/FPGA design tools, said Monday (Feb. 20) that its Active-HDL student edition is now available through the Walmart Online store and Barnes & Noble bookstores.
Aldec (Henderson, Nev.) said it is teaming with publisher Prentice Hall to bring VHDL and Verilog design entry and verification to the educational masses through traditional supply chains to increase awareness of EDA’s importance in electronics development. The companies described Active-HDL student edition as an educational resource for newly emerging digital logic circuit design methodologies, specifically the use of Hardware Description Languages (HDL) and EDA tools for simulation of these designs.
According to Stan Hanel, manager of Aldec's university program, the company's education resources make it easy for students to learn hands-on HDL design methodologies.
"Engineering students of all ages and career levels now have the option to locally install this software on home personal computers and laptops, providing greater access to Aldec's commercial EDA product for entry, simulation and verification of their HDL designs," Hanel said.
Aldec said that, though the Active-HDL student edition is limited in capacity, it includes an HDL editor for VHDL or Verilog languages, a block diagram editor and a finite state machine editor. The block diagram and finite state machine editors allow students to visualize designs in structural or behavioral format before committing them to HDL text, Aldec said.
Interactive VHDL and Verilog tutorials on the CD teach students to program in HDLs that underlay many of the most popular intellectual property cores currently available for digital logic circuit design, Aldec said. The student edition of Active-HDL includes Aldec's HDL simulator technology that can exercise static hardware models through the use of a testbench, also written in VHDL or Verilog code, the company said.
The student edition of Active-HDL is available at Walmart for $50.35 and at Barnes & Noble at a slightly higher price.
