You can identify a cross-platform design by the blue label on the design summary panel that indicates it is compatible with other platforms.

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There is also a new entry (Compatible platforms) in the properties pane of a design indicating the compatible platforms selected for the design:

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Manage components

The way to work with cross-platform designs is exactly the same as standard designs. You can add, edit or remove components of the design at your choice. However, note that the Smart IOmux application is filtering and limiting the type and amount of components you can add, including the MUX configuration of each component and even the settings of those components. This is how Smart IOmux ensures the design retains compatibility with all the selected platforms.

If a component does not have a common pad mapping for all the platforms it must be compatible with, it appears in the list of available components but with a red label containing the text "Not compatible with the design". The only way to add that component to the design is to break the compatibility of the design.

Break compatibility

Cross-platform designs allow you to add and use most of the primary interfaces of the ConnectCore platforms. However, there may be scenarios where you want to keep most of the design compatibility intact but add extra interfaces that can be populated later with link resistors in the hardware. You cannot perform this operation in a cross-platform design because the component you want to add may not be available, but you can do it by breaking the compatibility of the design.

There may be scenarios where you want to break compatibility, but one or more components in the design prevent you from doing so. In such a case, a popup message indicates that compatibility cannot be broken until the incompatible components are removed from the design.

To break the compatibility of a design:

  1. Open the cross-platform design.

  2. Open the properties section of your design by selecting the platform in the components tree view of the configuration view.

  3. In the Compatible platforms section, uncheck the platforms you no longer want to retain compatibility with.

    Compatibility can exist between several platforms. You can choose to break compatibility with either some or all of the platforms.
  4. Click OK to save the design when prompted.

  5. A second popup dialog may appear indicating that in order to break compatibility, some components of the design may need to be removed or modified. Click OK.

If the process was successful and compatibility could be broken, all items in the list of compatible platforms in the properties section of your design will be unchecked.

The design is now a standard one; therefore, there is no limitation on the number of components you can add, or their MUX configurations or settings.