RE: [Embedlets-dev] [HW] HDL, FPGA and other assorted acronyms....

[Christopher S. <cs...@oo...>]

Field Programmable Gate Arrays

They are actually quite powerful devices that can replace whole boards full
of components. They now have micro-processor cores (up to 4x400 Mhz
PowerPc'c per chip!) that you can drop in and integrate with your logic.
There is a real parallel with what we are doing in that whole functional
systems are defined in a 'C' based descriptive language with the possible
aid of a graphical wiring tool. The advantage of this approach is that
simulation is performed on the workstation by running the 'C' code. Then the
verified part is generated (burned) from a blank or mass produced as a
fabricated chip.

http://www.xilinx.com/xlnx/xil_prodcat_landingpage.jsp?title=Virtex-II+Pro+F
PGAs

The cross over occurs when an embedlet configuration might get
cross-compiled into a FPGA similar to what muvium is doing with the PIC
core. I suspect that it won't be long before a Java VM is available as well
that could leverage embedlets directly.

James would probably have the most insight into this.

James?

>
> Topic tags:[ARCH][JAPL][WIRING][DOCS][MGMT][STRATEGY][NEWBIE]
> _______________________________________________
>
> I think they are traditionally used mainly for "glue" chip tasks, and can
> replace a large number of discrete components quickly, and allow updating
> via. software... similar to uC's but really for a different purpose
> (although the lines seem to be blurring significantly).
>
> - Brill Pappin
>   Rogue Robotics
>   www.roguerobotics.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Andrzej Jan Taramina" <an...@ch...>
> To: <emb...@li...>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 4:36 PM
> Subject: [Embedlets-dev] [HW] HDL, FPGA and other assorted acronyms....
>
>
> > Topic tags:[ARCH][JAPL][WIRING][DOCS][MGMT][STRATEGY][NEWBIE]
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > Took me a while to figure out what FPGA meant.
> >
> > Anyway.....this seems to be very low level hardware oriented stuff. I
> think that
> > logica arrays (HDL, JHDL) is a great technology (reminds me of my youth
> with
> > digital logic decades ago) but way too low a level for our needs (though
> it
> > might make sense for device designers, who would then expose their
> > hardware with a JAPL interface). Might be some good insights on
> Graphical
> > Widing techniques there.  But I don't see much regarding our Embedlet
> > Container implementation.
> >
> > > I think that putting Embedlets into an FPGA using this kind of
> technology could
> > > prove to be very interesting.
> >
> > Wouldn't you use FPGA to design/create/configure a processor that then
> could
> > run something like Java/Embedlets?  In which case it just looks like
> another
> > processor (aJile, Intel, PIC, whatever) to us.  Again, it seems
> that FPGA
> is
> > much lower level (hardware design) than we are targeting.
> >
> > Unless I missed something. ;-)
> >
> > Andrzej Jan Taramina
> > Chaeron Corporation: Enterprise System Solutions
> > http://www.chaeron.com
> >
> >
> >
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