User:DanClemmensen
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Hi!
I am an FPGA amateur. I am attempting to port JOP to the Spartan3E starter kit. As of 2009-10-11, I have made some progress:
- Xilinx toolchain running on Linux
- Fully-automated Make system for my target
- FPGA built and loaded from the "program flash"
- Moved Bootloader to the jbc cache.
- Built new tools for BRAM generation
- use data2MEM to avoid unneeded FPGA rebuilds.
I have successfully built and run the "Plasma" design on my board.
Next tasks:
- port the Plasma DDR to JOP
- port the Plasms Ethernet to JOP
- build a Java equivalent of the Plasma Kernel.
- Find a home on the web for my stuff.
This is just a fun hobby, with no deadlines. My total calendar time so far has been about 4 months, but with an 18-month interregnum. I restarted my project on 2009-09-01. You can look at my earlier efforts at User:DanClemmensen/old. You can review my current efforts at User:DanClemmensen/Current.
I chose Xilinx because Xilinx has free tools that run on Linux, but Altera (apparently) does not. I chose the Spartan3E starter kit for low cost and high functionality: I did not realize when I chose it that the DDR was a major challenge.
[edit] Development environment
- Intel Core i7 desktop
- 64-bit Gentoo Linux,
- Xilinx WebPack 11.1,
- GHDL,
- GTKWave.
This is not the simplest environment for Xilinx development. I chose the Core i7 and 64-bit Gentoo Linux for my non-FPGA projects, and then figured out later how to run do Xilinx development on it. I documentd my work at Xilinx ISE Webpack 11.
I Found GHDL and GTKWave later, while researching the DDR problem. I use them instead of the restricted version of ModelSim that is available with the WebPack.
[edit] Target
The Spartan 3E starter kit is a demo board built by Digilent and originally marketed by Xilinx and Digilent. It is much more capable than the earlier Spartan3 starter kit. The only drawback is that it uses a DDR memory that is has proven difficult to interface in the past. There are now multiple examples of successlfull DDR implementations on this board, however.
As of 2009-10-11, this board is no longer offered by Xilinx, but is still generally available from distributors, and it is still available from Digilent. Xilinx now offers a demo board for its newer Spartan6, but the new board is twice as expensive and it does not have as many peripherals.
Features include:
- XCS500E FPGA-- more than twice the capability of the XS200 on the older board
- Lots of Flash -- 16MB parallel NAND, 2MB serial, and .5MB "platform flash."
- 64MB DDR RAM
- Ethernet
- two-line LCD.
- 2 UARTs, VGA, PS2 keyboard.
