[Milkymist-devel] SVN Access

[Uwe Bonnes]

>>>>> "Sébastien" == Sébastien Bourdeauducq <sebastien.bourdeauducq at lekernel.net> writes:

    Sébastien> Hi, On Sunday 09 August 2009 22.12.36 Uwe Bonnes wrote:
    >> I must admit that my interest is in the LM32 core and not primary in
    >> Milkymist. On most boards I develop, you find a AVR and an FPGA. The
    >> AVR is not at it's limits, as it is doing the slow control, but the
    >> 5V/3.3V interface is one aspect I look for a solution to get rid of
    >> the AVR.

    Sébastien> You may also want to have a look at AEMB (dual-thread barrel
    Sébastien> processor with the Microblaze ISA) and AE18 (PIC18).
    Sébastien> http://www.opencores.org/?do=project&who=aemb
    Sébastien> http://www.opencores.org/?do=project&who=ae18

I looked at the AEMB, but the community isn't that big either, beside the
USRP peoiple.

    Sébastien> Also, if you only make a basic microcontroller (no SDRAM, no
    Sébastien> graphics accelerators, etc.) compared to Milkymist the
    Sébastien> resource usage will be cut in 4.

    Sébastien> Can we know a little more about your application? :)

The applications are control boards where there is some (medium) fast data
processing and a quite slow control path for setting parameters. We use CAN
for parameter exchange. The fast output path is either some control loop
and/or via a backplane to some high level processing. I also used the FX2 (
and will use the FT2332H) for a fast path into a PC.

People might also want to run Linux with ethernet on some future board.

    >> As the board sometimes have long support time requirements, an open
    >> solution with a strong community baking it would be fine. Joerg's
    >> soc-lm32 seemed fine when I looked at it beginning at 2008, but now
    >> development seemes stalled.

    Sébastien> That's what Milkymist was originally based on actually.

Probably there has not been too much development in the Lattice tree, but a
split is something that makes me uncomfordable

...

    Sébastien> Depending on your application, you may also want to have a
    Sébastien> look at Actel chips. They are slow and small, but low-power
    Sébastien> and with some analogue interfaces.

The software is Windows only, the parts are distributor only ( against Xilinx
available at Digikey and even some parts at the german "Reichelt" shop,
delivering also to hobbyists) and there is 5 years + experience with Xilinx
on my side.

I also doubt that Actel parts have published JTAG 1532 programming
algorithms, meaning a Vendor programmer lock-in. My recent xc3sprog
work brings Xilinx programming to a wide range of adapters, beside adding
verify, readback and  XC95X and XC2C and SPI ISF programming.

Bye

-- 
Uwe Bonnes                bon at elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
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