RAPID PROTOTYPING OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS USING FIELD PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAYS Summa Cum Laude Thesis Bhavya Daya Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering Spring 2009 ii © 2009 Bhavya Daya iii To: God for granting me patience My mom, dad and brother for their unwavering support iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Herman Lam, for his assistance throughout the honors research, Professor Eric Schwartz for obtaining the Xilinx development board for the project, and Professor Ann Gordon-Ross and Professor Prabhat Mishra for being members of my supervisory committee. I would also like to thank Mr. Steve Permann, student advisor, for his guidance and support throughout my undergraduate studies at the University of Florida. v Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES x LIST OF FIGURES xi ABSTRACT xiv CHAPTER 1 1 INTRODUCTION 1 What is an Embedded System? 1 Design Considerations when Developing an Embedded System 4 Importance of Rapid Prototyping of Embedded Systems using FPGAs 6 Scope of The Project 10 Outline of Chapters 11 CHAPTER 2 12 EMBEDDED SYSTEMS DESIGN 12 Embedded Systems Design Flow 12 Three Generations of Embedded System Design 16 Trends affecting Embedded System Design 19 Overview of Embedded System Hardware and Software 20 CHAPTER 3 21 vi EMBEDDED SYSTEM HARDWARE 21 Peripherals 22 Processor 24 Microcontroller-Based 31 ASIC-Based 32 DSP Processor-Based 35 FPGA-Based 36 Memory 44 CHAPTER 4 50 EMBEDDED SYSTEM SOFTWARE 50 Intellectual Property 50 Stages of Software Development 51 Embedded Operating System 54 Xilinx and Altera Software Tools 58 CHAPTER 5 63 RAPID PROTOTYPING OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS 63 Rapid System Prototyping 64 Prototyping of Embedded Hardware and Software Systems 69 CHAPTER 6 74 BOARD-LEVEL RAPID PROTOTYPING OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS 74 vii Board Level Prototyping Methodology 74 Prototyping Platforms using FPGAs 75 Altera DE2 Development and Education Board 75 Xilinx FX12 PowerPC and Microblaze Embedded Development Kit 84 CHAPTER 7 92 EMBEDDED SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 92 Embedded System Design 95 Altera DE2 Board 95 USB and Embedded Operating System 96 Choosing an Embedded Operating System 98 UCLinux Operating System 99 Porting uCLinux to Nios II Processor and Cyclone II FPGA 100 Means of Implementing Photo Frame Application Using uCLinux 101 Design of Application Software 102 Porting Application to Nios II processor 103 SD Card and Nios Embedded Processor 104 Research of IP Cores 105 Nios II Hardware Design 105 SD Card Interface 106 VGA Interface 110 viii SRAM Controller 115 JPEG Decoder 116 Application Software Design 116 Xilinx PowerPC and MicroBlaze Development Kit FX12 Edition 118 Choosing an Embedded Processor 118 MicroBlaze Processor 119 PowerPC Processor 121 Research IP Cores Available 122 Compact Flash Interface 123 VGA Interface 125 Embedded Processor Hardware Design 126 Embedded Processor Software Design 129 Embedded System Implementation 130 Altera DE2 Board 130 USB and Embedded Operating System 131 SD Card and Nios Embedded Processor 134 Xilinx PowerPC and MicroBlaze Development Kit FX12 Edition 138 Altera DE2 and Xilinx FX12 140 CHAPTER 8 142 FUTURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS 142 ix CHAPTER 9 146 CONCLUSION 146 APPENDIX 150 SD_Card.h 150 Xsysace_selftest_example.c 157 LIST OF REFERENCES 159 x LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Comparison of Embedded Processor Cores within FPGAs 42 Table 2: FPGA comparison to ASIC 43 Table 3: Intellectual Property Added at Different Phases 52 Table 4: Common Embedded Operating Systems and Applications 57 Table 5: Demand for Rapid System Prototyping 68 Table 6: Nios II CPU Cores and Key Features 80 Table 7: PowerPC Processor Features 90 Table 8: Embedded Processor Design Checklist [36] 94 Table 9: Comparison of Operating Systems for Altera Development Boards [15] 98 Table 10: SPI Commands [20] 109 [...]... of the application and the degree to which the design challenges are satisfied The device that is impacting embedded systems is the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) The impact of FPGAs occurs on the prototyping phase of development as well as the final product development The prototyping of embedded systems using FPGAs will be considered throughout this paper Embedded systems can be developed using. .. is crucial to deploying a product in the embedded systems technology industry The typical TTM is eight months The company needs to deploy when the peak revenue can be attained Importance of Rapid Prototyping of Embedded Systems using FPGAs The significance of rapid prototyping of embedded systems can best be explained by briefly reviewing the trends seen in the embedded system development process 6 Figure... The future and trends of embedded systems are discussed in a later chapter Compared to desktop and server systems, embedded systems contain a larger range of processing power The price of the system is constrained for embedded systems, unlike desktop systems, and it is a key factor when designing the products for this part of the computer market The typical characteristics of an embedded system are as... many embedded systems have less RAM available than ROM The program written for embedded systems sometimes have to minimize the usage of the RAM Software component encompasses the entire functionality of the system It includes the operating system or run-time environment of the embedded system The configuration and error handling of the system is performed by the software Algorithms are a part of embedded. .. issues and future trends of embedded systems Other commercial happenings are also affecting the embedded systems industry A good embedded system designer considers many aspects when designing and makes choices that are conducive with the technology movement taking place 19 Overview of Embedded System Hardware and Software The hardware portion of the design process consists of using Verilog or VHDL to... of yet Rapid prototyping of embedded systems may alleviate the complexity gap problem and assist with the current trends in the embedded system market Rapid system prototyping will allow the 7 designers to explore other design alternatives and to unveil design errors as early as possible, given the short development period The embedded system’s short time-tomarket window greatly benefits from the rapid. .. Developing an Embedded System Embedded systems are within every industry, from aerospace to consumer applications With the new advances in embedded systems design, more complex applications may be implemented During the development of an embedded system certain process models are followed These models usually include the development of a working prototype of the final system Embedded systems are single-functioned... Performance is a factor that is always considered in systems An embedded system should perform its functions and complete them quickly and accurately High performance is especially emphasized in many embedded systems 5 People using these systems want the functions of the system to be optimal Low power is an important requirement for embedded systems The embedded systems usually run on batteries and should last... either connect to an external port of the embedded system or there are interconnections between the hardware and software parts of the system 20 CHAPTER 3 EMBEDDED SYSTEM HARDWARE Design of embedded systems has evolved from the transistor level to gate level and register transfer level Having a higher level of abstraction is beneficial when implementing complex hardware systems Programming at an even higher... embedded system is an embedded processor The embedded system usually contains a single function Some systems do exist that are programmable and contain couple different functions, such as PDAs Applications of embedded systems can be broken down into four types, signal processing, mission critical, distributed control, and small systems Signal processing systems could encompass all embedded systems, but the . an Embedded System 4 Importance of Rapid Prototyping of Embedded Systems using FPGAs 6 Scope of The Project 10 Outline of Chapters 11 CHAPTER 2 12 EMBEDDED SYSTEMS DESIGN 12 Embedded Systems. PROTOTYPING OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS 63 Rapid System Prototyping 64 Prototyping of Embedded Hardware and Software Systems 69 CHAPTER 6 74 BOARD-LEVEL RAPID PROTOTYPING OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS 74 vii. RAPID PROTOTYPING OF EMBEDDED SYSTEMS USING FIELD PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAYS Summa Cum Laude Thesis Bhavya Daya Bachelor of Science in Electrical