small, free simple state machine processor suggestions?

Has anyone found or could recommend a small(ish) processor for more
complex state machine tasks that is:

1. ~1000 LUTs or so (smaller is better)
2. available under a free license (say, GPL, LPGL, BSD)
3. available in vhdl?

Ideally something like picoblaze would probably do what I want, except
that it's not under any of the available licenses, and pacoblaze is
vhdl (and potentially an IP nightmare). I've found a bunch of small
processors on opencores and the like but many of them look
half-finished. Any recommendations? These state machines are driving me
mad!

Thanks!

...Eric

jonas@mit.edu wrote:
> Has anyone found or could recommend a small(ish) processor for more
> complex state machine tasks that is:
> 
> 1. ~1000 LUTs or so (smaller is better)
> 2. available under a free license (say, GPL, LPGL, BSD)
> 3. available in vhdl?
> 
> Ideally something like picoblaze would probably do what I want, except
> that it's not under any of the available licenses, and pacoblaze is
> vhdl (and potentially an IP nightmare). I've found a bunch of small
> processors on opencores and the like but many of them look
> half-finished. Any recommendations? These state machines are driving me
> mad!
Lattice offers the Mico8 as OpenSource, available as Verilog and VHDL
sources. Haven't tested it yet, so I can't comment on it at all. Plus I
don't know if it uses specific features for Lattice-parts or can be
synthesized for any architecture.

Just have a look at the website:

http://www.latticesemi.com/products/intellectualproperty/referencedesigns/8bitmicrocontrollermico8.cfm

-- 
My email address is only valid until the end of the month.
Go figure what the address is going to be after that...

Sean Durkin wrote:
> jonas@mit.edu wrote:
> > Has anyone found or could recommend a small(ish) processor for more
> > complex state machine tasks that is:
> >
> > 1. ~1000 LUTs or so (smaller is better)
> > 2. available under a free license (say, GPL, LPGL, BSD)
> > 3. available in vhdl?
> >
> > Ideally something like picoblaze would probably do what I want, except
> > that it's not under any of the available licenses, and pacoblaze is
> > vhdl (and potentially an IP nightmare). I've found a bunch of small
> > processors on opencores and the like but many of them look
> > half-finished. Any recommendations? These state machines are driving me
> > mad!
> Lattice offers the Mico8 as OpenSource, available as Verilog and VHDL
> sources. Haven't tested it yet, so I can't comment on it at all. Plus I
> don't know if it uses specific features for Lattice-parts or can be
> synthesized for any architecture.
>
> Just have a look at the website:
>
> http://www.latticesemi.com/products/intellectualproperty/referencedesigns/8bitmicrocontrollermico8.cfm
>
> --
> My email address is only valid until the end of the month.
> Go figure what the address is going to be after that...


Wow, so their license actually looks very reasonable and BSD-like. I'm
going to e-mail them and ask if their license allows the incorporation
of their code into a GPL'd project -- a casual reading suggests yes,
although IANAL.

And you're right, it could rely on lattice-specific primitives and the
like. But if not, wow, it'll work great. 

...Eric

jonas@mit.edu wrote:
 
> Has anyone found or could recommend a small(ish) processor for more
> complex state machine tasks that is:
> 
> 1. ~1000 LUTs or so (smaller is better)

If you want a real small 16 bit processor (65 Flip Flops and about 250 gates):
ftp://137.193.64.130/pub/mproz/

> 2. available under a free license (say, GPL, LPGL, BSD)

Don't think that 65 FF can have a license at all.

> 3. available in vhdl?

No, but shouldn't be a big problem to implement it in VHDL.

> that it's not under any of the available licenses, and pacoblaze is
> vhdl (and potentially an IP nightmare). I've found a bunch of small

By which I meant "pacoblaze is verilog". Alas. Of course, the synthesis
tools can interoperate, but the low-budget simulators (such as symphony
eda) cannot.

jonas@mit.edu schrieb:

> Has anyone found or could recommend a small(ish) processor for more
> complex state machine tasks that is:
>
> 1. ~1000 LUTs or so (smaller is better)
> 2. available under a free license (say, GPL, LPGL, BSD)
> 3. available in vhdl?
>
> Ideally something like picoblaze would probably do what I want, except
> that it's not under any of the available licenses, and pacoblaze is
> vhdl (and potentially an IP nightmare). I've found a bunch of small
> processors on opencores and the like but many of them look
> half-finished. Any recommendations? These state machines are driving me
> mad!
>
> Thanks!
>
> ...Eric

there is "avalon micro sequencer" at altera website.

and there exists a statemachine compiler from russia, I translated the
docs to english
but then new release did come out and I havent looked at changes or
updated the docs.
this sequences does come with its own compiler, that generates the
microcode.

Antti