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Message
From: dashxdr at gmail.com<dashxdr@g...>
Date: Sun Jul 6 21:05:15 CEST 2008
Subject: [oc] Open Source creation of FPGA data files?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4969729965240981475It's a google talks video given by Bob Brodersen. In general it's a call for a new paradigm, where you do general
purpose computation on reconfigurable hardware (as in FPGA's).
But he points out one major problem -- the creation of the data file
for the FPGA's themselves is a computationally intensive process, and
we're using the old von-neuman limited general purpose cpu's for this.
Very wasteful + slow.
So just as software development got a big boost when compilers existed
that were written in their own language, we need a similiar shift. We
want to have the FPGA itself assist in the creation of its own
configuration file. That means you need to define a language that is
expressive enough to implement the place & route, logic synthesis
task, yet itself can be compiled into the FPGA fabric.
Towards that end, tools produced by Xilinx + Altera -- they're dead
ends. The open source community needs to attack the problem of the
place & route software. It's a lot more realistic to transition from
an open source tool to one utilizing an FPGA itself, than the current
closed source model.
So here's my question: What existing open source projects are there
for creating the data files for FPGA's without using the vendor's
software?
I've got a spartan-3e starter board. Suppose I wanted to program the
3e without using Xilinx's software, is it even possible?
Thanks!
David Ashley
dashxdr@g...
http://www.xdr.com/dash
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