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Newbie question: which choice is right for my engineering project?

Hello all,

I am an electrical engineering student and in need of some advice for a project. There is a project that involves emulating a 16 bit microprocessor in an FPGA and I would like to gain some information about where to start. So, here are my questions:

1) Is it actually possible to emulate a microprocessor in an FPGA?

2) If I manage to code it in a way that any output that would have been obtained from the real processor for a given input is obtained from the FPGA, have I done the job? Or are there other considerations that I should be aware of?

3) What size and kind of FPGA chip and developing board is appropriate for this purpose?

4) Can I implement a working RAM and ROM inside the FPGA or should I leave them out?

5) Are there any flash type (if it is the right word) FPGA's that are electrically erasable and reprogrammable but don't lose their content when the power is turned off?

6) I am planning to start learning VHDL in the summer, is it the right tool for the purpose?

7) Our budget is limited to $500 US max, will I be able to find the right board and chip to finish the project within the budget? I have done some searching in the Internet and have seen some boards that seem to be quite inexpensive, but I wonder if they will do the job.

Please forgive my ignorance if the questions seem too naive, I will be taking the relevant courses in the next year. I am just trying to get a head start during the summer by preparing myself.

Thanks for any suggestions.

JP

Reply to
JP
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Sure.

Design goals: Clock rate, clock ticks per instruction, size of design, IO.

Verification goals: Code coverage, logic coverage, static timing coverage.

Documentation: What does it do? How does it do it?

Which microprocessor? A carefully designed and optimized for FPGA

16 bit processor will fit in a quarter or less of a small modern FPGA. A full emulation of a P-4 is probably several large FPGAs plus external RAM for the caches.

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Yes, actel sells one.

VHDL is a good tool. I use it. A widely used alternative is Verilog. While Verilog isn't quite as good as VHDL, it works. (~/~)

Why don't you download the free tools targeting the FPGA on one of these boards and try to build a design that fits into that FPGA?

Have fun.

-- Phil Hays Phil_hays at posting domain should work for email

Reply to
Phil Hays

Hi John,

Thank you so much for such a detailed response. I am reviewing it and will follow the links to augment my limited knowledge about this subject. Hopefully, by the fall, I will have learned enough about the field to be able to start the project.

Thanks again and take care,

JP

Reply to
JP

Hi Phil,

Thanks for info. You and John have provided invaluable advice for me to start acquainting myself with this world of programmable logic and FPGAs.

Take care,

JP

Reply to
JP

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