Shortening the design cycle for programmable logic

X-BLOX, a software tool for mapping architecture-independent designs to field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), is described. X-BLOX synthesizes a delay- and area-efficient logic-level design from an input specification consisting of a network of generic modules. The tool automatically propagates partial data type specification, performs architecture-specific design optimization, and performs context-dependent module synthesis.<<ETX>>