This paper describes two computer-aided design (CAD) tools for automatic synthesis of fuzzy logic-based inference systems. The tools share a common architecture for efficient hardware implementation of fuzzy modules, but are based on two different design strategies. One of them is focused on the generation of standard VHDL code, which can be later implemented on a reconfigurable device [field-programmable gate array (FPGA)] or as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The other one uses the Matlab/Simulink environment and tools for development of digital signal processing (DSP) systems on Xilinx's FPGAs. Both tools are included in the last version of Xfuzzy, which is a specific environment for designing complex fuzzy systems, and they provide interfaces to commercial VHDL synthesis and verification tools, as well as to conventional FPGA development environments. As demonstrated by the included design example, the proposed development strategies speed up the stages of description, synthesis, and functional verification of embedded fuzzy inference systems. © 2005-2012 IEEE.