Hardware compilation

The output of some compilers may target hardware at a very low level, for example a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or structured Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Such compilers are said to be hardware compilers or synthesis tools because the programs they compile effectively control the final configuration of the hardware and how it operates; the output of the compilation are not instructions that are executed in sequence - only an interconnection of transistors or lookup tables. For example, XST is the Xilinx Synthesis Tool used for configuring FPGAs. Similar tools are available from Altera, Synplicity, Synopsys and other vendors.