[LinuxBIOS] FLASH - PLAICE: Programmer, Logic Analyzer and In-Circuit Emulator Project

[Bari Ari]

I set up a quick wiki for the FLASH-PLAICE: Programmer, Logic Analyzer 
and In-Circuit Emulator Project at:

http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com/

Bari

[LinuxBIOS] FLASH - PLAICE: Programmer, Logic Analyzer and In-Circuit Emulator Project

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Bari Ari  [070413 16:56]:
> I set up a quick wiki for the FLASH-PLAICE: Programmer, Logic Analyzer 
> and In-Circuit Emulator Project at:
>
> http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com/

I ordered a Spartan 3e development board today.

I saw they have them with the 1600 FPGAs as well, but then they are 500
something bucks. Will we come close to exceed the space in the small
spartan 3e?

Stefan

[Bari Ari]

Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> Bari Ari  [070413 16:56]:
> > I set up a quick wiki for the FLASH-PLAICE: Programmer, Logic Analyzer 
> > and In-Circuit Emulator Project at:
> >
> > http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com/
>
> I ordered a Spartan 3e development board today.
>
> I saw they have them with the 1600 FPGAs as well, but then they are 500
> something bucks. Will we come close to exceed the space in the small
> spartan 3e?

We have 500K gates to work with. The 32-bit MicroBlaze fits fine with 
plenty of room to spare.

The sump logic analyzer uses under 200k gates.
http://www.sump.org/projects/analyzer/

The FLASH programmer feature will use the MicroBlaze.

We my use the MicroBlaze to handle control register reads/writes to 
emulate FLASH. The emulator will use the onboard 64MB-DDR for memory.

The logic analyzer can work without the MicroBlaze. If things get tight, 
all you have to do is load a new bitstream into the FPGA and it becomes 
different hardware. This may be done on the fly and only takes 
milliseconds. Another option is having fewer logic channels available 
for analysis during emuation or programming modes.

-Bari