The FlexASIC structured-ASIC products are designed as general-purpose configurable logic devices with standard-cell speed, density, and production costs, and FPGA ease of use and prototype costs. Each member of the FlexASIC product family contains an embedded 8051-based uController. This uController, called "eMu," performs built-in self test (Logic and RAM BIST, etc) and device configuration of the FlexASIC at system reset. After reset, eMu implements a number of system-level functions (power management, clock control, etc) for the FlexASIC user design.

eMu was designed using a modular design approach based on the Open Core Protocol (OCP) interface standard. All eMu modules interface through OCP sockets and are inter-connected through a switch fabric created with OCP merge and split modules. The socket-based design approach provided numerous benefits during the design and implementation process, allowing the entire design to be created, from architectural specification to tapeout, in 12 weeks.

Access the entire document on the eASIC Corp. website.