Identify tool that created FPGA files

Question

I have a set of old FPGA files. I'm trying to identify the tool that created them so I can try to import them into a current tool.

The file extensions of the set of files are *.abl, *.pin, *.ipf, *.dri and others.

The files are 10-15 years old. They were originally built on a Sun Workstation.

The target package is an Actel A1280A.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

As mentioned by others and in my comment. Try reading these files in a text editor and you should see human readable information especially in the .abl file which should include the logical description of the device operation in tha ABEL language.

If you need to modify and rebuild this device then you should contact Actel/Microsemi to find out what software support is there. A quick search on their website indicates that ABEL might still be supported and their libero 9.1 toolset still supports the ACT2 devices which appears to be the device you have.
http://www.actel.com/documents/PCN1108_LiberoIDE_support.pdf

You can get a free license and test the tool to see if it can import your files. http://www.actel.com/products/software/libero/licensing.aspx

Answer 2

The .abl extension is suggestive of the ABEL language, but I don't know whether that was ever used to program FPGAs. The Wikipedia page says that Xilinx now owns ABEL, so you could ask them whether it still supports Actel (kind of doubtful).

I worked extensively with Actel FPGAs in the 1990s, but we used Orcad schematic capture (not HDL) to design logic using Actel-supplied libraries, and then transferred the netlists into Actel's own toolchain for synthesis and programming.

I have some backup disks with the Actel software (as installed) on them, but I don't seem to have any original installation media. It's possible that their toolchain could parse ABEL source code directly, but I wouldn't know.

Answer 3

.abl indicates that they were written in ABEL (Advanced Boolean Expression Language).