What's Good About FSP Planning Mode? Check Out 16.6!

The Allegro FPGA System Planner (FSP) 16.6 release offers major improvements in Auto-interactive pin swap (“Planning Mode”) with the addition of “Auto pinswap” functionality. Using three different algorithms – Reassign Bundle Pins, Rake Order, and Breakout Order – you can re-optimize entire bundles (the existing 16.5 manual pin swapping functionality has been retained). The communication between Allegro PCB Editor and FSP has also been improved. Instead of using a copy of the FSP project and then side files for communicating swap requests, all communication is managed through an associated FSP project that the PCB designer selects in Allegro PCB Editor - this can be a copy of the FSP project or the master.

Read on for more details …

In the 16.5 release, the Allegro PCB Editor used placement dependent results to accomplish routing:

In the 16.6 release, the Allegro PCB Editor auto-interactive pin swap (“planning mode) uses the power of FSP during the PCB planning phase to re-optimize pin assignments based on actual bundle flows:

There are now available three (3) different auto pin swap algorithms that can be used - Reassign Bundle Pins, Rake Order, and Breakout Order:

The algorithms now combine flow/route planning along with the FPGA rules guided swapping:

I look forward to your feedback on these new capabilities.

Jerry “GenPart” Grzenia