Hi all, Can you suggest any good FPGA projects I could contribute to? I have some = free time and want to work on something challenging and interesting. Inste= ad of starting something myself I'm wondering where to find some cool proje= cts that exist already that need help. Thanks!
Know any good public FPGA projects to contribute to?
Started by ●July 24, 2014
Reply by ●July 25, 20142014-07-25
Hi, here, for example, is one. http://forum.gadgetfactory.net/index.php?/topic/2046-xthundercore-is-taking-shape/ In general, there are many CPUs but a shortage of simple (!) "Hello world" examples to actually use them without spending a week first. This blog nails it, more or less: http://blog.tube42.se/?p=105 (that said: I managed to get the "small" variant of the ZPU in question working on a Spartan 6, here. http://forum.gadgetfactory.net/index.php?/topic/1863-bare-metal-zpu-hello-world/. It is slow but fairly small, about 12 % on a Spartan 6 LX9) Another interesting project is "minSoc". It appears to be very well maintained. A simulation worked right out of the box when I tried yesterday - it even includes its own iverilog simulator - but I wasn't able to build on Spartan 6 as the JTAG block is not supported. A minimal openRisc "hello world" example could be useful for many - nothing but processor, on-chip RAM with initial values for program code and a LED. --------------------------------------- Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com
Reply by ●July 25, 20142014-07-25
wrong link: blog.tube42.se/?p=105 --------------------------------------- Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com
Reply by ●July 25, 20142014-07-25
well... as fascinating as this candy business is, I was trying to link to "Tubologue | The sad state of OSS hardware (part 1)" but usenet won't let me... Lost in quotation... --------------------------------------- Posted through http://www.FPGARelated.com
Reply by ●September 3, 20142014-09-03
On Thursday, July 24, 2014 9:45:53 PM UTC-5, signaltap wrote:> Hi all,> Can you suggest any good FPGA projects I could contribute to? I have som=e free time and want to work on something challenging and interesting. Ins= tead of starting something myself I'm wondering where to find some cool pro= jects that exist already that need help. Have an experimental processor core that needs the VHDL for the control log= ic to be written. Jim Brakefield
Reply by ●September 3, 20142014-09-03
On 9/3/2014 4:05 PM, jim.brakefield@ieee.org wrote:> On Thursday, July 24, 2014 9:45:53 PM UTC-5, signaltap wrote: >> Hi all, > >> Can you suggest any good FPGA projects I could contribute to? I have some free time and want to work on something challenging and interesting. Instead of starting something myself I'm wondering where to find some cool projects that exist already that need help. > > Have an experimental processor core that needs the VHDL for the control logic to be written.There are a million processor cores out there. What is interesting about yours? -- Rick
Reply by ●September 3, 20142014-09-03
On Wednesday, September 3, 2014 4:34:11 PM UTC-5, rickman wrote:>=20 > > On Thursday, July 24, 2014 9:45:53 PM UTC-5, signaltap wrote: >=20 > >> Can you suggest any good FPGA projects I could contribute to? I have =some free time and want to work on something challenging and interesting. = Instead of starting something myself I'm wondering where to find some cool = projects that exist already that need help.>=20 > > Have an experimental processor core that needs the VHDL for the control=logic to be written.>=20 > There are a million processor cores out there. What is interesting=20 > about yours?Hybrid between stack, accumulator and memory oriented instruction sets. (1 to 4 stack pointers with offset addressing, frame & thread pointers, sin= gle block RAM) (data size orthogonal, single to quad issue capable, fast interrupts) Intent is that it can be used as an accumulator machine, a stack machine or= a C machine. Everything except a RISC machine. All pointer registers (in= cluding PC) are in a LUT RAM, stacks are in the block RAM (at least in a mi= nimal implementation).
Reply by ●September 3, 20142014-09-03
On 03/09/14 23:14, jim.brakefield@ieee.org wrote:> On Wednesday, September 3, 2014 4:34:11 PM UTC-5, rickman wrote: >> >>> On Thursday, July 24, 2014 9:45:53 PM UTC-5, signaltap wrote: >> >>>> Can you suggest any good FPGA projects I could contribute to? I have some free time and want to work on something challenging and interesting. Instead of starting something myself I'm wondering where to find some cool projects that exist already that need help. >> >>> Have an experimental processor core that needs the VHDL for the control logic to be written. >> >> There are a million processor cores out there. What is interesting >> about yours? > > Hybrid between stack, accumulator and memory oriented instruction sets. > (1 to 4 stack pointers with offset addressing, frame & thread pointers, single block RAM) > (data size orthogonal, single to quad issue capable, fast interrupts) > > Intent is that it can be used as an accumulator machine, a stack machine or a C machine. Everything except a RISC machine. All pointer registers (including PC) are in a LUT RAM, stacks are in the block RAM (at least in a minimal implementation).To be a bit belligerent, those are all internal /features/, not /benefits/ visible to a user of the (black-box) processor. Certainly they are all more-or-less useless without tool support (e.g. compiler, debuggers). Now if you had said that the processor used minimal power, or had fixed execution times for all instructions (so that the compiler/IDE could define the execution time of each block/loop/subroutine), then that might have been of benefit to the user of the black box.
Reply by ●September 3, 20142014-09-03
On Wednesday, September 3, 2014 5:47:47 PM UTC-5, Tom Gardner wrote:> > On Wednesday, September 3, 2014 4:34:11 PM UTC-5, rickman wrote: > >>> On Thursday, July 24, 2014 9:45:53 PM UTC-5, signaltap wrote: > >>>> Can you suggest any good FPGA projects I could contribute to? I hav=e some free time and want to work on something challenging and interesting.= Instead of starting something myself I'm wondering where to find some coo= l projects that exist already that need help.>=20 > >>> Have an experimental processor core that needs the VHDL for the contr=ol logic to be written.>=20 > >> There are a million processor cores out there. What is interesting > >> about yours? >=20 > > Intent is that it can be used as an accumulator machine, a stack machin=e or a C machine. Everything except a RISC machine. All pointer registers= (including PC) are in a LUT RAM, stacks are in the block RAM (at least in = a minimal implementation).>=20 > To be a bit belligerent, those are all internal /features/, > not /benefits/ visible to a user of the (black-box) processor. > Certainly they are all more-or-less useless without tool > support (e.g. compiler, debuggers). >=20 > Now if you had said that the processor used minimal power, > or had fixed execution times for all instructions (so that > the compiler/IDE could define the execution time of each > block/loop/subroutine), then that might have been of benefit > to the user of the black box.It does have fixed execution times. It is intended for the hard real-time = embedded market. Power should be minimal: Estimating 300 Spartan6 LUTs + multiplier for 16-b= it version.
Reply by ●September 3, 20142014-09-03
Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:> On 03/09/14 23:14, jim.brakefield@ieee.org wrote:(snip)>> Hybrid between stack, accumulator and memory oriented instruction sets. >> (1 to 4 stack pointers with offset addressing, frame & thread >> pointers, single block RAM) >> (data size orthogonal, single to quad issue capable, fast interrupts)>> Intent is that it can be used as an accumulator machine, a >> stack machine or a C machine. Everything except a RISC machine. >> All pointer registers (including PC) are in a LUT RAM, stacks >> are in the block RAM (at least in a minimal implementation).> To be a bit belligerent, those are all internal /features/, > not /benefits/ visible to a user of the (black-box) processor. > Certainly they are all more-or-less useless without tool > support (e.g. compiler, debuggers).Well, for a high-level language programmer, I suppose. But for assembly programmers, those are mostly still visible. Now, we could all say that it doesn't matter, that Intel won the world, but I might believe that there is still something left out there, especially if the goal isn't to get rich. Also, there might still be some room for new ideas in soft processors.> Now if you had said that the processor used minimal power, > or had fixed execution times for all instructions (so that > the compiler/IDE could define the execution time of each > block/loop/subroutine), then that might have been of benefit > to the user of the black box.-- glen
