Re: [microblaze-uclinux] FPGA apps?

[John Williams <jwilliams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Matthew,

Matthew Rubenstein wrote:

> 	Where are the apps? Linux on FPGA is a means to an end, not an end in
> itself: familiar development environment for new FPGA tools. Is there an
> archive of apps that run under MicroBlaze? With MicroBlaze omitting
> fork() in favor of vfork() (inherited from uCLinux, with no MMU), even
> the ancient Unix multitasking patterns are unavailable. But the
> inherently parallel FPGA architecture offers a vastly superior
> environment for parallelism.

Currently I think the most common use of FPGAs is as a convenient dev 
platform, rather than utilising the reconfigurable nature of FPGAs 
themselves.

As for uClinux and its lack of fork etc, that hasn't stopped it being 
deployed in something like 20 million embedded devices!  Numbers like 
these are always rubbery, but uClinux is certainly finding (found?) its 
niche.

> 	Where is a "helloWorlds" app that builds multiple identical circuits,
> each signalling "Hello World" on a different pin literally
> simultaneously? 

I've built microblaze uClinux systems with 10 serial ports, it took 
longer to synthesise the hardware than it did to modify the design files...

 > That's a template for development, which will not only
> improve the productivity of FPGA developers, but also offer a section of
> the vast Linux global development community as developers for this
> superior platform. Maybe I'm jumping the gun, with a stable platform
> less than a month old, but where are the apps?

I'm working on self-reconfiguration architectures within the uClinux 
architecture. I've done the linux-based self-reconfiguring "hello world" 
example, networked partial bitstream servers and all that.  This work 
will be presented at ERSA later this year.

It's all about making platforms to build on, that's why I think the 
uClinux thing is a good idea.  You need a platform of components, both 
software and hardware, from which you build your apps.  It takes time to 
develop those things, but if you do it properly, you only do it once.

Regards,

John
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