What's new in EASE™ 7.3

We are excited about all the new features in EASE 7.3.
To give you an impression we have listed the most important changes below.

General:

• Adding Ports and Generics/Parameters textually
  In the Entity/Module Properties dialog you can add ports and generics/parameters textually. All properties, you can set when adding a port or generic/parameter graphically, can be set in this dialog, except the actual value for a generic/parameter (this can be set in the Component/Instance Properties dialog, page Generic/Parameter values).
• Instance Generate
  You can add a generate statement to one component/instance without using the generate block object. This generate statement can be added by opening the Component/Instance Properties dialog and selecting the Generate page.
• Editor Window
  
  • The use of the mouse wheel has changed to be more Windows compliant:
    
    • mouse wheel = scroll vertical
    • SHIFT + mouse wheel = scroll horizontal
    • CTRL + mouse wheel = zoom in/out
  • You can rotate instances, ports and bus rippers before placing with the SPACE BAR. The rotation of bus rippers with the key r is no longer supported.
  • The Editor Window has now its own message bar. This message bar shows verification information and information about selected objects. Clicking on a verification item shows the verification message and selects the object mentioned in this message. The verification information is still shown in the Console Window but with this new feature you could close the Console Window to enlarge the Editor Window.
  • You can add an image object to a block and state diagram using the button. After drawing the outline of the image a dialog appears in which you can select the image. The supported images are JPG, PNG and TIF. An image can be inserted at the left side of the sheet title block of every block and state diagram. This image is called a company logo. You can add a company logo in the Project Properties dialog, page Info. The selected image is re-sized to the same height as the sheet title block.
  • You can flip instances horizontal or vertical using the instance shortcut menu.
• Verilog Improvements
  The following Verilog improvements have been made:
  • Support for ANSI style module definition.
    You can enable the ANSI style in the Project Properties dialog, page HDL > Verilog. This option is only available for Verilog-2001.
  • A module parameter can be set to be a localparam by enabling this option in the Parameter Properties dialog. This option is only available for Verilog-2001.
  • You can add a specify block statement to your block diagram by selecting the button. In the dialog that appears select 'Specify Block' as Contents.
  • The concept of a module body has been removed. A module has now an implementation (block, state, table or HDL file). A module can have only one implementation.
• Relative Paths
  It is now possible to specify a relative path to an external HDL file and to a linked library. Everywhere a relative path is allowed the browser gadget is extended with an icon that will help you to specify a relative path.
• Core Generator HDL Files
  HDL files created and read in via the Core Generator dialog become external HDL files. As from this Ease version, Altera MegaWizard and Xilinx CoreGenerator files that have been created and read in via the Core Generator dialog have their own symbol in the Browser Window. These Altera and Xilinx core files have also an extra menu item in the shortcut menu of the HDL file to start the generator again with the core already loaded.

Smaller:

• All modified external HDL files can be updated in one action
• Support for library copy in the library shortcut menu
• Added "purge all" to library purge
• The Console Window, Console tab page has now a Tcl interpreter accepting Tcl commands
• Added a net merge option to connect-by-name tag shortcut menu
• Added copy to net shortcut menu
• Improvements to the HDLWare dialog
• The output directory of linked libraries can be specified per project (Project Properties dialog, page HDL > Generator)
• Improvements to place and route
• A package use may be specified without a postfix
• Printer drivers now generate gray scale instead of black and white

More about EASE

EASE 7.3 Release Notes

Download EASE 7.3 now:

• Brochures, Tutorials and Manuals
• Software (including manuals)