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Newbie: xilinx vs arm

Hello,

My knowledge on fpga field is almost zero. Ive got few questions. I would like to enter into fpga world. Ive thought about buying starter kit to start to play. Ive found few spartans boards and arm's.

Whats the diffrence between them (development utils, hardware) ?

Ive seen that arm has gnuarm and arm-linux, does it mean that I can program arm processor using C / C++ ? If yes that seems to be quite fast method rather then writing the same in HDL ?

HDL describes hardware circuits, C / C++ is software programming language - does it mean that arm is rather "hardware procesor" and spartans are rather fpga's ? Is it possible to write in C/C++ into spartan and vice versa in HDL with arm ?

Are there others processors which counts on this field ?

Ive would like to start feel whats going on fpga field .. soo if anyone would point me in some directions would be great.

Thanks

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un.
Reply to
unlogic
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Spartan = FPGA ARM = MicroProcessor

The difference between them is pretty extensive.

Yes, you can program an ARM uP using C/C++. All you need is software to compile that into assembly.

You can't write HDL for an ARM. Why would you? It would have to be translated into assembly as well, which just doesn't make sense. HDL's are Hardware Definition Languages. They are used to describe hardware, not software.

The key feature of HDL's is that there is a subset of the language that is synthesizable to hardware. You don't have to spend time connecting things at the gate level or macro level on a schematic. You write code that describes what you want your hardware to do.

It is possible to embed a microprocessor (even an ARM) into an FPGA and have it control your hardware. This gets complicated. Quickly.

An FPGA allows you to design your own hardware logic. A microprocessor allows you to write code targeted to a specific device to perform some function or functions. You cannot create any more hardware than what the ARM (or whatever you use) provides. The Spartan, like all FPGA's, are basically blank slates. Save for some internal structures like clock logic, RAM's, built-in DSP blocks, etc, it is up to you to create whatever you can realize in hardware, connect it all together and see if it works.

It really depends on what you need to do. Each device has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Hope this helps.

Reply to
motty

Hi, an ARM is a processor with its hardware structure yet defined and ready to be programmed (C/C++/assembly), while an FPGA is a chip with no structure defined. What you need to do with the latter is to write HDL code (VHDL or Verilog languages) that describes the hardware structure of your FPGA (programmable logic). In this way you can implement exactly what you're looking for, an optimized chip for your task, and, if you may need, you could also put an ARM architecture inside your logic. Marco

Reply to
Marco

Do both. Look at Altera parts which have both ARM processors and and FPGA on the same chip ;)

Reply to
fpga_toys

Thanks for all replies. It much more clear now.

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un
Reply to
unlogic

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