 | This is missing information about three OpenPOWER cores, one Moxie core, both at RTL level. Please expand the to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (July 2020) |
A soft microprocessor (also called softcore microprocessor or a soft processor) is a microprocessor core that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis. It can be implemented via different semiconductor devices containing programmable logic (e.g., FPGA, CPLD), including both high-end and commodity variations.
Most systems, if they use a soft processor at all, only use a single soft processor. However, a few designers tile as many soft cores onto an FPGA as will fit. In those multi-core systems, rarely used resources can be shared between all the cores in a cluster.
While many people put exactly one soft microprocessor on a FPGA, a sufficiently large FPGA can hold two or more soft microprocessors, resulting in a multi-core processor. The number of soft processors on a single FPGA is limited only by the size of the FPGA. Some people have put dozens or hundreds of soft microprocessors on a single FPGA. This is one way to implement massive parallelism in computing and can likewise be applied to in-memory computing.
A soft microprocessor and its surrounding peripherals implemented in a FPGA is less vulnerable to obsolescence than a discrete processor.
Core comparison
| Processor | Developer | Open source | Bus support | Notes | Project home | Description language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| based on the ARM instruction set architecture | ||||||
| Amber | Conor Santifort | LGPLv2.1 | Wishbone | ARMv2a 3-stage or 5-stage pipeline | Project page at Opencores | Verilog |
| Cortex-M1 | ARM | No | 70–200 MHz, 32-bit RISC | Verilog | ||
| based on the AVR instruction set architecture | ||||||
| Navré | Sébastien Bourdeauducq | Yes | Direct SRAM | Atmel AVR-compatible 8-bit RISC | Project page at Opencores | Verilog |
| pAVR | Doru Cuturela | Yes | Atmel AVR-compatible 8-bit RISC | Project page at Opencores | VHDL | |
| softavrcore | Andras Pal | Yes | Standard AVR buses (core-coupled I/O, synchronous SRAM, synchronous program ROM) | Atmel AVR-compatible 8-bit RISC (up to AVR5), peripherals and SoC features included | Project page at Opencores | Verilog |
| based on the MicroBlaze instruction set architecture | ||||||
| AEMB | Shawn Tan | Yes | Wishbone | MicroBlaze EDK 3.2 compatible | AEMB | Verilog |
| MicroBlaze | Xilinx | No | PLB, OPB, FSL, LMB, AXI4 | Xilinx MicroBlaze | ||
| OpenFire | Virginia Tech CCM Lab | Yes | OPB, FSL | Binary compatible with the MicroBlaze | Verilog | |
| SecretBlaze | LIRMM, University of Montpellier / CNRS | Yes | Wishbone | MicroBlaze ISA, VHDL | SecretBlaze | VHDL |
| based on the MCS-51 instruction set architecture | ||||||
| MCL51 | MicroCore Labs | Yes | Ultra-small-footprint microsequencer-based 8051 core | 312 Artix-7 LUTs. Quad-core 8051 version is 1227 LUTs. | MCL51 Core | |
| TSK51/52 | Altium | Royalty-free | Wishbone / Intel 8051 | 8-bit Intel 8051 instruction set compatible, lower clock cycle alternative | Embedded Design on Altium Wiki | |
| based on the MIPS instruction set architecture | ||||||
| BERI | University of Cambridge | BSD | MIPS | Project page | Bluespec | |
| Dossmatik | René Doss | CC BY-NC 3.0, except commercial applicants have to pay a licence fee. | Pipelined bus | MIPS I instruction set pipeline stages | Dossmatik | VHDL |
| TSK3000A | Altium | Royalty-free | Wishbone | 32-bit R3000-style RISC modified Harvard-architecture CPU | Embedded Design on Altium Wiki | |
| based on the PicoBlaze instruction set architecture | ||||||
| PacoBlaze | Pablo Bleyer | Yes | Compatible with the PicoBlaze processors | PacoBlaze | Verilog | |
| PicoBlaze | Xilinx | No | Xilinx PicoBlaze | VHDL, Verilog | ||
| based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture | ||||||
| f32c | University of Zagreb | BSD | AXI, SDRAM, SRAM | 32-bit, RISC-V / MIPS ISA subsets (retargetable), GCC toolchain | f32c | VHDL |
| NEORV32 | Stephan Nolting | BSD | Wishbone b4, AXI4 | rv32 , RISC-V-compliant, CPU & SoC available, highly customizable, GCC toolchain | GitHub OpenCores | VHDL |
| VexRiscv | SpinalHDL | Yes | AXI4 / Avalon | 32-bit, RISC-V, up to 340 MHz on Artix 7. Up to 1.44 DMIPS/MHz. | https://github.com/SpinalHDL/VexRiscv | VHDLVerilog (SpinalHDL) |
| based on the SPARC instruction set architecture | ||||||
| LEON2(-FT) | ESA | Yes | AMBA2 | SPARC V8 | ESA | VHDL |
| LEON3/4 | Aeroflex Gaisler | Yes | AMBA2 | SPARC V8 | Aeroflex Gaisler | VHDL |
| OpenPiton | Princeton Parallel Group | Yes | Manycore SPARC V9 | OpenPiton | Verilog | |
| OpenSPARC T1 | Sun | Yes | 64-bit | OpenSPARC.net | Verilog | |
| Tacus/PIPE5 | TemLib | Yes | Pipelined bus | SPARC V8 | TEMLIB | VHDL |
| based on the x86 instruction set architecture | ||||||
| CPU86 | HT-Lab | Yes | 8088-compatible CPU in VHDL | cpu86 | VHDL | |
| MCL86 | MicroCore Labs | Yes | 8088 BIU provided. Others easy to create. | Cycle accurate 8088/8086 implemented with a microsequencer. Less than 2% utilization of Kintex-7. | MCL86 Core | |
| s80x86 | Jamie Iles | GPLv3 | Custom | 80186-compatible GPLv3 core | s80x86 | SystemVerilog |
| Zet | Zeus Gómez Marmolejo | Yes | Wishbone | x86 PC clone | Zet | Verilog |
| ao486 | Aleksander Osman | 3-Clause BSD | Avalon | i486 SX compatible core | ao486 | Verilog |
| based on the PowerPC/Power instruction set architecture | ||||||
| PowerPC 405S | IBM | No | CoreConnect | 32-bit PowerPC v.2.03 Book E | IBM | Verilog |
| PowerPC 440S | IBM | No | CoreConnect | 32-bit PowerPC v.2.03 Book E | IBM | Verilog |
| PowerPC 470S | IBM | No | CoreConnect | 32-bit PowerPC v.2.05 Book E | IBM | Verilog |
| Microwatt | IBM/OpenPOWER | CC-BY 4.0 | Wishbone | 64-bit PowerISA 3.0 proof of concept | Microwatt @ Github | VHDL |
| Chiselwatt | IBM/OpenPOWER | CC-BY 4.0 | Wishbone | 64-bit PowerISA 3.0 | Chiselwatt @ Github | Chisel |
| Libre-SOC | Libre-SoC.org | BSD/LGPLv2+ | Wishbone | 64-bit PowerISA 3.0. CPU/GPU/VPU implementation and custom vector instructions | Libre-SoC.org | python/nMigen |
| A2I | IBM/OpenPOWER | CC-BY 4.0 | Custom PBus | 64-bit PowerPC 2.6 Book E. In order core | A2I @ Github | VHDL |
| A2O | IBM/OpenPOWER | CC-BY 4.0 | Custom PBus | 64-bit PowerPC 2.7 Book E. Out of order core | A2O @ Github | Verilog |
| Other architectures | ||||||
| ARC | ARC International, Synopsys | No | 16/32/64-bit ISA RISC | DesignWare ARC | Verilog | |
| ERIC5 | Entner Electronics | No | 9-bit RISC, very small size, C-programmable | ERIC5 Archived 2016-03-05 at the Wayback Machine | VHDL | |
| H2 CPU | Richard James Howe | MIT | Custom | 16-bit Stack Machine, designed to execute Forth directly, small | H2 CPU | VHDL |
| Instant SoC | FPGA Cores | No | Custom | 32-bit RISC-V M Extension, SoC defined by C++ | Instant SoC | VHDL |
| JOP | Martin Schoeberl | Yes | SimpCon / Wishbone (extension) | Stack-oriented, hard real-time support, executing Java bytecode directly | Jop | VHDL |
| LatticeMico8 | Lattice | Yes | Wishbone | LatticeMico8 | Verilog | |
| LatticeMico32 | Lattice | Yes | Wishbone | LatticeMico32 | Verilog | |
| LXP32 | Alex Kuznetsov | MIT | Wishbone | 32-bit, 3-stage pipeline, register file based on block RAM | lxp32 | VHDL |
| MCL65 | MicroCore Labs | Yes | Ultra-small-footprint microsequencer-based 6502 core | 252 Spartan-7 LUTs. Clock cycle-exact. | MCL65 Core | |
| MRISC32-A1 | Marcus Geelnard | Yes | Wishbone, B4/pipelined | 32-bit RISC/Vector CPU implementing the MRISC32 ISA | MRISC32 | VHDL |
| NEO430 | Stephan Nolting | Yes | Wishbone (Avalon, AXI4-Lite) | 16-bit MSP430 ISA-compatible, very small size, many peripherals, highly customizable | NEO430 | VHDL |
| Nios, Nios II | Altera | No | Avalon | Altera Nios II | Verilog | |
| OpenRISC | OpenCores | Yes | Wishbone | 32-bit; done in ASIC, Actel, Altera, Xilinx FPGA. | Verilog | |
| SpartanMC | TU Darmstadt / TU Dresden | Yes | Custom (AXI support in development) | 18-bit ISA (GNU Binutils / GCC support in development) | SpartanMC | Verilog |
| SYNPIC12 | Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo | MIT | PIC12F compatible, program synthesised in gates | nbee.es | VHDL | |
| xr16 | Jan Gray | No | XSOC abstract bus | 16-bit RISC CPU and SoC featured in Circuit Cellar Magazine #116-118 | XSOC/xr16 | Schematic |
| YASEP | Yann Guidon | AGPLv3 | Direct SRAM | 16 or 32 bits, RTL in VHDL & asm in JS, microcontroller subset : ready | yasep.org (Firefox required) | VHDL |
| ZipCPU | Gisselquist Technology | GPLv3 | Wishbone, B4/pipelined | 32-bit CPU targeted for minimal FPGA resource usage | zipcpu.com | Verilog |
| ZPU | Zylin AS | Yes | Wishbone | Stack based CPU, configurable 16/32 bit datapath, eCos support | Zylin CPU | VHDL |
| RISC5 | Niklaus Wirth | Yes | Custom | Running a complete graphical Oberon System including an editor and compiler. Software can be developed and ran on the same FPGA board. | www.projectoberon.com/ | Verilog |
See also
- System-on-a-chip (SoC)
- Network-on-a-chip (NoC)
- Reconfigurable computing
- VHDL
- Verilog
- Hardware acceleration
References
- http://www.dailycircuitry.com/2011/10/zet-soft-core-running-windows-30.html Archived 2018-10-13 at the Wayback Machine "Zet soft core running Windows 3.0" by Andrew Felch 2011
- "Embedded.com - FPGA Architectures from 'A' to 'Z' : Part 2". Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2012-08-18. "FPGA Architectures from 'A' to 'Z'" by Clive Maxfield 2006
- MicroBlaze Soft Processor: Frequently Asked Questions Archived 2011-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
- István Vassányi. "Implementing processor arrays on FPGAs". 1998.
- Zhoukun WANG and Omar HAMMAMI. "A 24 Processors System on Chip FPGA Design with Network on Chip".
- John Kent. "Micro16 Array - A Simple CPU Array"
- Kit Eaton. "1,000 Core CPU Achieved: Your Future Desktop Will Be a Supercomputer". 2011.
- "Scientists Squeeze Over 1,000 Cores onto One Chip". 2011. Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
- Joe DeLaere. ""Top 7 Reasons to Replace Your Microcontroller with a MAX 10 FPGA"" (PDF).
- John Swan; Tomek Krzyzak. (2008). ""Using FPGAs to avoid microprocessor obsolescence"". Archived from the original on 2016-10-13.
- Staff (2010-02-03). "FPGA processor IP needs to be supported". Electronics Weekly. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
- "Overview :: OpenFire Processor Core :: OpenCores".
External links
- Soft CPU Cores for FPGA
- Detailed Comparison of 12 Soft Microprocessors
- FPGA CPU News
- Freedom CPU website
- Microprocessor cores on Opencores.org (Expand the "Processor" tab)
- NikTech 32 bit RISC Microprocessor MANIK.
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