August 22, 2011 -- This last part in a four part series presents an example project concept that is based on an FPGA embedded hard core processor implementation. It addresses a complex design implementation that is beyond the scope of this series. Rather, the intent is to show a potential real-world advanced design example and discuss some of the factors that must be addressed in order to implement the system.

As an aid to the reader, application notes and reference papers are called out. These documents provide a lower-level implementation detail. For a broader understanding of the technology utilized in this example review of datasheets and user guides is appropriate.

For the purpose of this example, the result of the architecture and processor evaluation is Xilinx's XC4VFX20 component. This FPGA includes a 405 PowerPC processor, tri-mode Ethernet block, embedded memory and DSP slices.

Our FPGA-based projected system requirements include a PCI bus interface, a 10/100 Ethernet connection, an external DDR memory controller for access to processor memory and an external Flash memory controller for access to stored program memory.

By R.C. Cofer and Ben Harding. (Cofer has almost 25 years of embedded design experience, including real-time DSP algorithm development, high-speed hardware, ASIC and FPGA and project focus; Harding has almost 20 years of experience in embedded systems design involving DSPs, network processors and programmable logic.)