Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Emmanuel Mayssat <[email protected]> · Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:58:37 -0800

I was dumbfounded when I saw linux on a FPGA.
It was at the last NOBUGS conference.
Here is the abstract and contact.

Jonah M. Weber
Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Authors:
J. M. Weber and M. J. Chin
Session:
Data Acquisition and Controls (II)
(Wednesday morning)
Title:
Using FPGAs with Embedded Processors
for Complete Hardware and Software
Systems
Field Programmable Gate Arrays
(FPGAs) with embedded processors
allow the instrumentation designer
to field a system that tightly
couples high speed (>500MHz) digital
logic to a Control Systems-friendly
software platform (i.e. Linux,
VxWorks, EPICs). This technology
merges CPU and I/O functions onto a
single board allowing greater
flexibility in physical form factor,
power requirements, and data
management. Without being
constrained by a bus standard,
hardware and software can join in a
malleable design template. LBNL is
currently using this technique to
design a control system module for
ALS booster top off operation and
has completed designs for PEP-II
transverse feedback electronics and
ALS bunch cleaning. This
presentation will include a hands-on
demo of an FPGA evaluation board
running a simplified example of a
control system interface.

--
Emmanuel Mayssat
Lyncean Technologies, Inc.

On Fri, 2007-03-02 at 12:21 -0500, D. Peter Siddons wrote:
> Hi David,
>    FWIW, the RTEMS mailing list currently has a thread discussing an 
> RTEMS BSP for the Xilinx Virtex 4. I don't know how close anyone is to 
> submitting anything.
> Pete.
> 
> 
> David Kline wrote:
> > thanks for your response... at this point i don't have any specific 
> > requirements/application
> > and only interested in finding out what has been done throughout the 
> > community.
> > 
> > at the moment we use an epics brick (linux-based pc104 system) running 
> > epics to communicate
> > with either an in-house designed external fgpa board (using the epics 
> > brick dio) or over the bus
> > using the fpga104 from tri-m systems.
> > 
> > /david
> > 
> > 
> > Joze Dedic wrote:
> >> Hi David
> >>
> >> Can you give some more details for the requirements?
> >>
> >> Generally an OS is required to run EPICS, which requires the use of
> >> processor. Here you have several possibilities:
> >> - you can use soft-core processor for your FPGA circuit (for Altera that
> >> would be NIOS)
> >> - you can use in-FPGA hard-wired processor (Xilinx's Virtex II pro with
> >> Motorola Power PC)
> >> - use some standalone embedded processor and connect your FPGA circuit it
> >> via some bus that allows you enough data throughput
> >>
> >> One thing you should be aware of is that porting a Linux to a softcore or
> >> hard-wired in-FPGA processor is all but trivial (despite what the Xilinx and
> >> Altera state).
> >>
> >> Our practice is to use embedded platform for flexibility and connect it to
> >> the FPGA board over PC/104 bus.
> >> For example, we have built a 500MHz delay generator, capable of producing
> >> programmable delays with the jitter of less than 50ps, which is integrated
> >> in EPICS. For performance we used Xilinx FPGA (thus pushing the
> >> state-of-the-art FPGA to its edge) and for flexibility embedded platform
> >> running Linux (that was a piece of cake because we already have the range of
> >> solutions using embedded platforms).
> >>
> >> Cordially,
> >> Joze
> >>
> >> -------------------------------
> >> Joze Dedic, Ph.D.
> >> Senior Hardware Developer
> >> Cosylab d.o.o.
> >> Teslova ulica 30
> >> SI-1000 Ljubljana
> >> Slovenia
> >> Email: [email protected] 
> >> Phone: +386 1 4776 759
> >> Mobile: +386 41 279 232
> >> http://www.cosylab.com
> >> http://www.microioc.com
> >>  
> >>
> >>   
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: David Kline [mailto:[email protected]] 
> >>> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 2:21 PM
> >>> To: [email protected]
> >>> Subject: epics / fpga
> >>>
> >>> has anyone got epics to run on an altera fpga?
> >>>
> >>> thanks in advance,
> >>> /david
> >>>
> >>> -- 
> >>>
> >>> +-------------------------------------------------+
> >>> David M. Kline                   [email protected]
> >>> Beamline Controls and Data Acquisition (BCDA) Argonne 
> >>> National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source
> >>> Argonne IL, 60439                      630.252.8639
> >>>    ---------------------------------------------
> >>>                    Beamlines R Us
> >>> +-------------------------------------------------+
> >>>
> >>>     
> >>
> >>   
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> > +-------------------------------------------------+
> > David M. Kline                   [email protected]
> > Beamline Controls and Data Acquisition (BCDA)
> > Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source
> > Argonne IL, 60439                      630.252.8639
> >    ---------------------------------------------
> >                    Beamlines R Us
> > +-------------------------------------------------+
> > 
> 

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System