Development boards for CPU development ?
in [FPGA]
|
From: Jurgen Defurne on 10 Oct 2009 12:50 I have a hobby project which consists of developing a complete computer system from the ground up. With complete I mean that it should have character display capabilities, keyboard input capabilities and mass storage capabilities. Graphics and networking might come in the future, but I feel that adding these is probably more a team effort than a single person effort, and I need time first to implement what should be a reasonable system stack. This is what I mean with from the ground up : a system stack consisting of an ISA, a simulator for the ISA and processor architecture, basic display and keyboard capabilities for the simulator, and system software which is based on Lisp. I have already the simulator running, together with the IO capabilities and an assembler. A nice link to give you a background, and what motivated me, is the Homebuilt CPU's Webring, starting at http://www.homebrewcpu.com/. However, I am not really motivated to build anything in TTL (although I did design in 2006 and 2007 a 12-bit CPU, which I simulated at the ALU/register level on a wire/bus basis) and doing wirewrap (expensive) or etching boards (no laboratory space available). What I am looking at for the future is a board where I of course can build a CPU on, with VGA output and USB interface for both keyboard and mass storage. Currently I have some target boards, which I find interesting both in price and possibilities : - Digilent Nexsys2 board - Digilent Nexsys board - Spartan-3 starter kit board - Spartan-3E starter kit I am fascinated by the possibilities these boards might give. However, are there other boards that you know of so that I might compare them, price less then 200 EUR ? I have also been following the discussion below about the ARM cores, so I know that there might be drawbacks on implementing a CPU (or a more or less complete computer system) by means of an FPGA. However, for me it seems the most logical way, because these boards offer some basic possibilities which are difficult to achieve in any other way. Also, since my interest goes to the total system (ISA/implementation/SW/applications), this gives me the possibility to create something in a reasonable time, say about 2 years. That is basically it, I think. Since such a project has many details, I have possibly already forgotten some things, so do not hesitate to ask. Regards, Jurgen
From: John Adair on 10 Oct 2009 14:11 Have a look at our new Spartan-6 board Drigmorn3 http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/component_replacements/drigmorn3.html. It's on the edge of your budget but there is also another board Drigmorn2 (Spartan-3A) that is about to launch and is a little simpler and cheaper. John Adair Enterpoint Ltd. On 10 Oct, 17:50, Jurgen Defurne <jurgen.defu...(a)telenet.be> wrote: > I have a hobby project which consists of developing a complete > computer system from the ground up. With complete I mean that it > should have character display capabilities, keyboard input > capabilities and mass storage capabilities. Graphics and networking > might come in the future, but I feel that adding these is probably > more a team effort than a single person effort, and I need time first > to implement what should be a reasonable system stack. > > This is what I mean with from the ground up : a system stack > consisting of an ISA, a simulator for the ISA and processor > architecture, basic display and keyboard capabilities for the > simulator, and system software which is based on Lisp. I have already > the simulator running, together with the IO capabilities and an > assembler. > > A nice link to give you a background, and what motivated me, is the > Homebuilt CPU's Webring, starting athttp://www.homebrewcpu.com/. However, I am not really motivated to > build anything in TTL (although I did design in 2006 and 2007 a 12-bit > CPU, which I simulated at the ALU/register level on a wire/bus basis) > and doing wirewrap (expensive) or etching boards (no laboratory space > available). > > What I am looking at for the future is a board where I of course can > build a CPU on, with VGA output and USB interface for both keyboard > and mass storage. > > Currently I have some target boards, which I find interesting both in > price and possibilities : > > - Digilent Nexsys2 board > - Digilent Nexsys board > - Spartan-3 starter kit board > - Spartan-3E starter kit > > I am fascinated by the possibilities these boards might give. However, > are there other boards that you know of so that I might compare them, > price less then 200 EUR ? > > I have also been following the discussion below about the ARM cores, > so I know that there might be drawbacks on implementing a CPU (or a > more or less complete computer system) by means of an FPGA. However, > for me it seems the most logical way, because these boards offer some > basic possibilities which are difficult to achieve in any other > way. Also, since my interest goes to the total system > (ISA/implementation/SW/applications), this gives me the possibility to > create something in a reasonable time, say about 2 years. > > That is basically it, I think. Since such a project has many details, > I have possibly already forgotten some things, so do not hesitate to > ask. > > Regards, > > Jurgen
From: Jon on 10 Oct 2009 14:29 Save up and go for one of these: http://www.altera.com/products/devkits/altera/kit-cyc3-embedded.html A bit more expensive, but it has all the toys. Cheers, Jon
From: -jg on 10 Oct 2009 17:30 On Oct 11, 5:50 am, Jurgen Defurne <jurgen.defu...(a)telenet.be> wrote: > I have a hobby project which consists of developing a complete > computer system from the ground up. With complete I mean that it > should have character display capabilities, keyboard input > capabilities and mass storage capabilities. Graphics and networking > might come in the future Depends if your interest is more in the SW, HW, or final usable system. Look also at the propellor chip > I have also been following the discussion below about the ARM cores, > so I know that there might be drawbacks on implementing a CPU (or a > more or less complete computer system) by means of an FPGA. An FPGA solution is going to win on flexibility, but will always cost more to get even a medium speed CPU in a FPGA, than as real silicon, and you will not get very high performance single CPU in a FPGA, So, I'd suggest you also look at the Low cost Eval Board, for Std CPU's. eg Atmel's ATNGW100 is just $89, and NXP have just released a useful development platform for $60 : see http://mbed.org/ or check out the bottom end Atom's ... or for silicon working harder, perhaps this ? http://www.belogic.com/uzebox/index.htm - could be respun into xMega ... -jg
From: Uwe Bonnes on 11 Oct 2009 07:49 Jurgen Defurne <jurgen.defurne(a)telenet.be> wrote: > I have a hobby project which consists of developing a complete > computer system from the ground up. With complete I mean that it > should have character display capabilities, keyboard input > capabilities and mass storage capabilities. Graphics and networking > might come in the future, but I feel that adding these is probably > more a team effort than a single person effort, and I need time first > to implement what should be a reasonable system stack. > This is what I mean with from the ground up : a system stack > consisting of an ISA, a simulator for the ISA and processor > architecture, basic display and keyboard capabilities for the > simulator, and system software which is based on Lisp. I have already > the simulator running, together with the IO capabilities and an > assembler. > A nice link to give you a background, and what motivated me, is the > Homebuilt CPU's Webring, starting at > http://www.homebrewcpu.com/. However, I am not really motivated to > build anything in TTL (although I did design in 2006 and 2007 a 12-bit > CPU, which I simulated at the ALU/register level on a wire/bus basis) > and doing wirewrap (expensive) or etching boards (no laboratory space > available). > What I am looking at for the future is a board where I of course can > build a CPU on, with VGA output and USB interface for both keyboard > and mass storage. > Currently I have some target boards, which I find interesting both in > price and possibilities : > - Digilent Nexsys2 board > - Digilent Nexsys board > - Spartan-3 starter kit board > - Spartan-3E starter kit If you want the experiment with free CPU, look for a board without DDR2. There is no open DDR2 core yet. Otherwise look at the project you want to run and look at the supported boards. Bye -- Uwe Bonnes bon(a)elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de Institut fuer Kernphysik Schlossgartenstrasse 9 64289 Darmstadt --------- Tel. 06151 162516 -------- Fax. 06151 164321 ----------
|
Next
|
Last
Pages: 1 2 Prev: Virtex 5 HDMI Next: problem while receiving negative integer in microblaze |