Re: Req: (Free) Embedded Platforms for Education [+FPGA]

Hi,

It might also be worth to have a look at FPGAs:

FPGA High Performance Computing Alliance: Technology:
http://www.fhpca.org/technology.html

20 March 2007 Green supercomputer is 'go' in Scotland:
http://hardware.silicon.com/servers/0,39024647,39166443,00.htm?r=1
Quote: "...in the next two to three years - FPGA tech could really take off..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hardware_description_languages
e.g.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verilog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHDL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JHDL
BYU JHDL, Open Source FPGA CAD Tools:
http://www.jhdl.org/
8/31/2001, Lab to offer open-source Java-based FPGA tool:
http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010831S0086


This type of hardware could be very useful for robotics:

Elphel reconfigurable cameras:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/elphel

http://wiki.elphel.com/index.php?title=10353
http://wiki.elphel.com/index.php?title=Camera_hardware
Main page:
http://wiki.elphel.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Imaging solutions with Free software and open hardware:
http://www.elphel.com/articles/index.html


Just another FPGA+microcontroller example:

The Alya Project:
http://home.nikocity.de/andymon/hfg/Alya/alya.html
Quote: "...The Alya board mainly consists of a PIC16C64 ["C" - can only be flashed once (might only be UV eraseable)] microcontroller and an Altera 10K10 FPGA to handle the data transfer.
Instead, I decided to use an Altera FPGA and just connect all pins to the FPGA. This is a good example how FPGAs simplify a design - instead of having to understand all the details of the devices involved, just connect them directly and implement the details later. This lead to a 208 pin device and, as I intended to use it only as a wiring, register and multiplexer box, the smallest FPGA available, a 10K10A, seemed to be sufficient.
All information about the ATA interface can be found in the ATA spec. You can't download the spec itself, but there are countless drafts at http://www.t13.org/ that are as well. I'd recommend you download the ATA-2 draft, it has only 90 pages and contains everything you need for programming.
....
Most people I spoke to thought the harddisk interface would be pretty complex and interfacing to it some kind of wizardry. It isn't.
...."
http://melzer.ch/html/body_alya.html
http://melzer.ch/ALYA.ASM
http://melzer.ch/Schaltplan1.gif
http://melzer.ch/Schaltplan2.gif
http://melzer.ch/Schaltplan3.gif

04/23/2007, FPGA tool startup 'rockets' for success:
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=199200568

02/05/2007, FPGA tool bottleneck stalls HPC:
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=197002705
Quote: "...
Current FPGA synthesis, placement and routing tools are written for hardware designers, not software programmers simply trying to accelerate an algorithm.
....
"We were casting about for ways to reduce heat in our data centers, and FPGA technology seemed like a good bet."
...."

-

FPGAs are among others used in high performance Layer 4-7 network equipment and harddisc (real hardware) RAIDs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_switch

How to choose the right RAID level:
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid5_gci1261825,00.html
Quote: "...If a RAID offload or accelerator engine (chip, ASIC, FPGA) is being used..."

Designing a Breakthrough Line Card to Transport GbE Data Over Optical Networks:
http://www.intel.com/design/network/casestudies/altera.htm
Citat: "...The GbE muxponder card combines the Intel® IXF18102 and IXF30005 family of transport optical components, an Altera Stratix* 1S80 field-programmable gate array (FPGA)..."

kind regards,

Glenn
.

Relevant Pages

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