This white paper introduces and advocates tools that allow designers to create vendor-independent FPGA configurations that can change as new technologies and customer demands emerge.  Third-party IP elements such as DSP and processor cores play an important role in today’s FPGA design work, helping FPGA developers meet time-to-market and cost challenges in a competitive world. But relying on the proprietary IP that “came with the FPGA” is a recipe for limited choices in the future.