Combined Microprocessor and FPGA

Hey,

Thanks everyone for the tips - after reading through all the info, I
decided it all seemed a bit daunting, and hence I'm not sure it'll
work out as intended, and that in turn limits my budget. (If I can't
get it working due to not having the right software licenses for
example, I'll end up having wasted loads of money on hardware, and the
details of exactly what I would or would not need seemed challenging)

That being the case, I went for the lowest end Altera Cyclone II mini
development board, a bigger flash configuration chip (16Mbit) to
solder to the board, and a USB blaster programmer. All from ebay for
$65.

I plan to get a NIOS II processor, and hook it up so it can execute
code from spare space at the end of the flash configuration chip.

The choice was partly motivated by my desire to have it portable,
because I've realised it would be much cooler if I could demonstrate
my device handheld powered from some AA batteries than a desk mounted
version. I have also realised that no FPGA's seem to come in packages
which I have equipment to hand solder, so I've gotta use a dev board
rather than just sticking it in a DIP24 socket... Altera parts also
makes sense because my college already has contracts from Altera for
software.

There is talk here of the Cortex M1/3 processor here - is that the
kind of thing you can just download and use in a softcore as a
student, or do you have to pay a multi-million dollar license to get
hold of it?

Thanks
Oliver
 
On Nov 1, 2:24 pm, Oliver Mattos <omat...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey,

Thanks everyone for the tips - after reading through all the info, I
decided it all seemed a bit daunting, and hence I'm not sure it'll
work out as intended, and that in turn limits my budget. (If I can't
get it working due to not having the right software licenses for
example, I'll end up having wasted loads of money on hardware, and the
details of exactly what I would or would not need seemed challenging)

That being the case, I went for the lowest end Altera Cyclone II mini
development board, a bigger flash configuration chip (16Mbit) to
solder to the board, and a USB blaster programmer.  All from ebay for
$65.

I plan to get a NIOS II processor, and hook it up so it can execute
code from spare space at the end of the flash configuration chip.

The choice was partly motivated by my desire to have it portable,
because I've realised it would be much cooler if I could demonstrate
my device handheld powered from some AA batteries than a desk mounted
version.  I have also realised that no FPGA's seem to come in packages
which I have equipment to hand solder, so I've gotta use a dev board
rather than just sticking it in a DIP24 socket...  Altera parts also
makes sense because my college already has contracts from Altera for
software.

There is talk here of the Cortex M1/3 processor here - is that the
kind of thing you can just download and use in a softcore as a
student, or do you have to pay a multi-million dollar license to get
hold of it?

Thanks
Oliver
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's a megabuck core. The only way you can use a CM1 is to go
the Actel route where they have already paid the license fee. I'm not
sure of their arrangement with ARM, but I expect they are also paying
a per chip fee as well. They only support the CM1 on a "special"
version of the FPGA which I suspect is only special in the higher
price to pay the per unit license fee.

Rick
 
ARM University relations is working on an easily available encrypted FPGA netlist for academic use. I don't know the details but I
have asked my colleage about it.

In the meantime ARM has a university program that you can contact at

www.arm.com/support/university

or university@arm.com

regards,
--steve

"Oliver Mattos" <omattos@gmail.com> wrote in message news:5d26e81a-576a-4ff5-8e2f-490239880f46@f33g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
There is talk here of the Cortex M1/3 processor here - is that the
kind of thing you can just download and use in a softcore as a
student, or do you have to pay a multi-million dollar license to get
hold of it?

Thanks
Oliver
Click to expand...
 
On Nov 3, 1:36 pm, "Steve Ravet" <steve.ra...@arm.com> wrote:
ARM University relations is working on an easily available encrypted FPGA netlist for academic use.  I don't know the details but I
have asked my colleage about it.

In the  meantime ARM has a university program that you can contact at

www.arm.com/support/university

or univers...@arm.com

regards,
--steve

"Oliver Mattos" <omat...@gmail.com> wrote in messagenews:5d26e81a-576a-4ff5-8e2f-490239880f46@f33g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...

There is talk here of the Cortex M1/3 processor here - is that the
kind of thing you can just download and use in a softcore as a
student, or do you have to pay a multi-million dollar license to get
hold of it?

Thanks
Oliver
Click to expand...
That reminds me of an ARM core that was developed and posted on
OpenCores at one time. Seems the guy did such a good job that ARM
contacted him about removing it. I'm not sure how I know this, but I
want to say he ended up working for ARM...

Rick
 
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