METHOD FOR PROGRAMMING A MASK-PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC DEVICE AND DEVICE SO PROGRAMMED

A user logic design for a mask-programmable logic device (“MPLD”) may be designed on a comparable or compatible user-programmable logic device (“UPLD”) and migrated to the MPLD, or may be designed directly on an MPLD. If the design is designed on a UPLD, the constraints of the target MPLD—i.e., differences between the devices—are taken into account so that the migration will be successful. If the design is designed directly on an MPLD, constraints of a comparable compatible UPLD are taken into account if the user indicates that the design will be migrated to the UPLD for testing. This means that when a logic design is intended to be migrated back-and-forth between a UPLD and an MPLD, only the intersection of features can be used. To facilitate migration, fixed mappings between pairs of devices may be created.