Recommend a good FPGA CPU core

[jmcoreymv]

Can anyone recommend a good CPU core for me to load onto a Spartan 3. I was looking for something that might be packaged with a tcp/ip stack and small OS so I could make use of an ethernet port. I know Microblaze has it but that costs $$. There are a lot of cores on opencores.org but I don't know which ones are better than others.

I just found this one http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/mips/overview which looks like it may do the job actually. Any opinions?

 

[tex1138]

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv
I just found this one http://www.opencores.org/projects.cgi/web/mips/overview which looks like it may do the job actually. Any opinions?

You didn't tell us what the job is ;-) That one has the advantage that they have a real proof-of-concept running in real hardware, not just simulation.

If you have $$ available, you might check this out too:

http://www.arc.com/

The concept is that you start from a plain-vanilla microprocessor core, run and profile your code, and then add your own instructions to the core, targeted to your specific application. I almost had a chance to get my hands on this, but the opportunity fell through.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Nah I dont have any money available for this. I just wanted a quick and fast way for me to setup an eval board to communicate through the ethernet port instead of serial.

 

[helpme]

It doesn't say if it comes with an ethernet controller core. Does it? You'll need to hunt one of those down too if not. I don't believe the xilinx ethernet / ethernet lite that xilinx has aren't free either.

What dev board is it? You may be able to get an ace file from the uClinux project if you have one of the supported boards. (has uClinux and possible an ethernet core depending on the premade configuration)

 

[jmcoreymv]

I was looking for one that would work on this http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Det...EBOARD&Nav1=Products&Nav2=Programmable

There's a few different ethernet mac cores on opencores too. I've just never dealt with implementing an ethernet/ip connection so I wasn't sure where to start.

 

[helpme]

Neat, looks like a new product from them! I haven't seen that one before, I have one of their V2P boards (a very good bargain), and many of my friends had the old S3 board.

You'll have to connect the ethernet core to the processor via some kind of bus, so you'll have to see what bus options each processor offers. Maybe some of the cores have processors with special point to point links for co-designed ethernet cores?

 

[Lord Banshee]

ohh i like that board i think i might buy it..

 

[jmcoreymv]

Digilent makes really good development boards and they usually come with everything you need to get it going (programming cable and power adapter). Also their tech support is really good and responds usually within a few hours by email.