Connecting FPU core on Virtex II Pro

[Matt Parks]

I am interested in using a floating-point unit on a Virtex II Pro system as
software emulation is very slow. Does Xilinx have any plans to develop such
a unit? I am thinking about trying to implement a simple FPU in the FPGA to
speed things up, but I am not sure as to the best way to connect it to the
PPC core. I would like this core to be accessible to any C/Linux program
running on the PowerPC unit if possible. According to the datasheet it is
possible to trap floating-point operations and handle them that way, but I'm
concerned that the overhead may negate any gains of hardware implementation.
Any advice?

 

[Austin Lesea]

Matt,

Yes (we have plans, and further...). Contact your FAE.

Austin

Matt Parks wrote:

I am interested in using a floating-point unit on a Virtex II Pro system as
software emulation is very slow. Does Xilinx have any plans to develop such
a unit? I am thinking about trying to implement a simple FPU in the FPGA to
speed things up, but I am not sure as to the best way to connect it to the
PPC core. I would like this core to be accessible to any C/Linux program
running on the PowerPC unit if possible. According to the datasheet it is
possible to trap floating-point operations and handle them that way, but I'm
concerned that the overhead may negate any gains of hardware implementation.
Any advice?