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#51188 Netduino and Bluetooth

Posted by cutlass on 08 July 2013 - 06:17 AM in Netduino 2 (and Netduino 1)

 

For anyone else interested in the Seeedstudio Bluetooth Shield:

 

Very cool, thanks! :)

 

Also, for the sake of others, I assume that you mean the following module:

Posted Image

http://www.seeedstud...tml?cPath=19_21

Bluetooth Shield $22.90
SKU: SLD63030P
Designer: Seeed Studio

Wiki page:  http://www.seeedstud...luetooth_Shield

Important document on the instructions and handshaking (I've seen better): http://www.seeedstud...Instruction.pdf

 

From Amazon:  http://www.amazon.co..._pr_product_top

Bluetooth Shield for Arduino
Price: $29.95

 

Once, again, thanks! :)




#50821 Simple sine table

Posted by cutlass on 26 June 2013 - 01:48 AM in General Discussion

Nice, good idea.

Thanks!




#50720 Free Microsoft Books

Posted by cutlass on 22 June 2013 - 04:26 PM in General Discussion

Neat, thanks! :)




#50641 Cheap + Good Cases / Enclosures - Continuing to Beat on this Topic

Posted by cutlass on 19 June 2013 - 06:40 PM in General Discussion

Anything 3D printed, or that has machine work will not be cheap.

You can get a cheap plastic case, use a Dremel, and make your own case.

BTW, if you don't have a Dremel, get a real Dremel (name brand) kit from Home Depot, etc.

 

Plenty to choose from:

http://www.digikey.c...=0&pageSize=100

 

 

Also, ebay has some cheap plastic cases.  IMHO, I've had much better luck with Digikey than ebay.

 

 

Dremel, accessories, kits, etc:

http://www.homedepot...?..#/?c=1&gr=gr

 

My suggestion:

Posted Image

~$140 Having the flex shaft makes it much easier. :-)

http://www.homedepot...-6-50/202713349

 

Low cost basic kit:

Posted Image

~$70

http://www.homedepot...1-25H/203040434

 

 

Good luck.




#50487 what material is Smartwatch made up of?

Posted by cutlass on 14 June 2013 - 05:55 PM in General Discussion

I'm a huge believer and supporter of kickstarter. Kickstarter is where you should ask the question.

These forums are for Netduino users.  Some of us will be using a Netduino to to emulate the smart-watch and display.

 

So, as an FYI, on Kickstarter, you can always send the person/company a private message.

That link is on the left under the "Project by ...." section.

For example:

Project by
Secret Labs + House of Horology
New York, NY

Contact me  http://www.kickstart...[to]=secretlabs

 

Note: Kickstarter has a very low tolerance for antagonists. Having an account on kickstarter is a privilege.  There is no law in any country that gives a person the right to have an account on kickstarter.  So, be polite and respectful when asking any questions. :)

 

I hope you do fund some kickstarter projects, and you find it satisfying and rewarding!

Good Luck!




#50380 Dear Trolls/Anti-Agents

Posted by cutlass on 09 June 2013 - 06:31 PM in General Discussion

IMHO, I see the AGENT watch as solidifying the Netduinos! :)

 

If the AGENT watches are super successful (which I hope :)), then the Netduino line would also benefit from any AGENT development.  It's easy to go from an AGENT form factor to a big development board with connectors.

Of course, the Netduino line will have it's own R&D budget and plan.  Chris has shown that he knows business. IMHO, you don't ignore a good/profitable product line.

 

Also, having a good low power Netduino that could run on a button-cell, or a small rechargeable battery and solar cell would be great!  Such as a Netduino based on the AGENT watch.  But, obviously without the AGENT "OS customizations" and without some of the added AGENT required hardware - Qi charging, display, BT, magnetometer, accelerometer, etc.

 

Although I would love to see a 1GHz Netduino, I don't see that in the near future.  The processors in the Netduino product don't have a simple upgrade path to anything that fast made by the manufacture (yet).

 

Also, IMHO, with the AGENT watch, and people able to make money from AGENT apps, that will bring a lot more people to the .NETMF and C# world.  That will bring more code examples.

 

Also, IMHO, there are other reasons why I think the AGENT watches will benefit the Netduinos. 




#50372 Driver for the MCP41100 digital potentiometer

Posted by cutlass on 09 June 2013 - 03:26 PM in Project Showcase

Neat, Thanks!

 

For FPGAs, and dedicated hardware (like a PWM output), a simple/cheap analog output can be made with an RC (resistor , capacitor - or other low-pass filter) and doing a simple PWM (vary the pulse width).  Depending on many factors, it's possible to get ~7-8 bits of resolution (~128-256 values) from that single line. :)

Note, there is ripple on the signal, and many other "non good things" with this type of simple output!

 

For debugging, that simple type of signal can be good. You just hook up a voltmeter, or a lead to a multi-channel voltage data-logger, and you can get valuable information. :)  It's also much easier than a serial output.  And, a handheld voltmeter is small and easy to use, and to look at signals/test-points.

 

Some more info:

http://www.ti.com/li...497/slaa497.pdf




#50284 How make simple reset circuit?

Posted by cutlass on 04 June 2013 - 11:52 PM in General Discussion

It depends on the voltage, QUANTITY, etc.

IMHO, for a few parts, be smart, do it easy and simple.

Or, waste a LOT of time and money screwing around. :)

 

IMHO, unless someone knows why it would take many pages to do an analysis of just a simple RC circuit, they will likely be wasting massive amounts of time and money in trying to do a fast reset/power-down/brown-out circuit. :-)

 

 

For low cost, check out TI tlv810s series: (~$0.50)

http://www.ti.com/product/tlv810s

They also have a development board for $20.

 

 

For easy, DIP, and 3.3v:

MAX793, MAX793R, MAX793S, MAX793T, MAX794, MAX795, MAX795R, MAX795S, MAX795T
3.0V/3.3V Adjustable Microprocessor Supervisory Circuits

http://www.maximinte...dex.mvp/id/1189

(About $10 for DIP package on ebay)




#50279 How make simple reset circuit?

Posted by cutlass on 04 June 2013 - 10:26 PM in General Discussion

Simple answer, you need a dedicated power-on reset chip.

 

Sorry, no "simple throw together" circuit will work.  It may works a few times, or under a few conditions.

And yes, my code will work as long as someone hits the button between at a rate of every 1->5 seconds.

However, if the button is hit every 6 seconds, or every 1/2 second, the code will blow, create a black hole, and destroy the universe.  :-O

 

FWIW, a real analysis of just a simple RC circuit is 10-20++ pages.

 

For something quick, easy, cheap, check out:

http://www.maximinte...dex.mvp/id/1472

 

http://datasheets.ma...X698-MAX699.pdf

 

Posted Image

 

 

Comes in DIP, there's one on ebay for ~$5.

 

 

Cheap easy reset circuits all depends on the application.  IMHO, use a proper power-on reset chip.  Or, plan on allowing for seconds between power-off/power-on. :)

 

Good Luck!




#50187 Detect power loss on VIN

Posted by cutlass on 01 June 2013 - 10:10 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Hmmm.

 

Looking at the data sheet for the SAM7X512, the absolute maximum voltage rating for input pins is -0.3V to +5.5V.

(Section 38.1 Absolute Maximum Ratings).

It does not distinguish between digital and analogue inputs - hence until now, I have assumed that 5V is OK for the analogue inputs.

 

Later in the data sheet at section 38.7 ADC Characteristics, it does say the maximum input to the ADC is VADVREF.

But, since VADVREF could actually be less than 3.3V, I don't think that this is indicating a voltage where damage might occur, I think this is just indicating the expected range to get the full scale reading of 1023.

 

One other thing to throw in, is that these pins are dual purpose: digital or analogue inputs.

e.g. Analogue input 0 is connected to the ARM pin "PB27/AD0".

 

Having said all that, it sounds like you (cutlass) have had some damage using 5V on the analogue inputs.

Is that true?

Was is permanent?

 

Paul

Paul,

Hi!

 

If a pin is in analog-mode, and the input is around 3.6-4+v, it will fry the chip.  My chip now gets very hot after having power for ~5 seconds.  I didn't even get the power supply very high, since the chip stopped sending data back to the PC.  I was seeing how high the voltage had to be before the ADC noise quieted out.  I was being slow and careful not to go over 5V.  I never got near 5V. :-P

 

 

From the thread:

http://forums.netdui...n-on-tolerance/

(I also added that info to my analog example thread)

 

 

Summary:

When a pin is in ADC mode (PC0-PC5 ; pins 8,9,10,11, 24,25), the voltage limits are as follows:

Low: -0.3v

High: +3.6v (3.3v + 0.3v)

 

 

The data sheet is here:

http://www.st.com/st.../DM00037051.pdf

 

The N+2 uses a 64pin STM32F405RG

 

From the data sheet:

 

ADC voltage input specs:

page: 105:

VIL Input low level voltage

Min Vin Low

VIL VSS–0.3v

(VSS is ground.  So, the minimum voltage is -0.3v)

 

Max Vin High
VIH TTa/TC(2) I/O input high level voltage  VDD+0.3

See Note2

2.TTa = 3.3V tolerant I/O directly connected to ADC; TC = standard 3.3V I/O.

 

 

ADC Characteristics:

Table 67

pages: 124,125

 

 

ADC equivalent input schematic:

page: 127

 

Good Luck!




#50174 is it possible to use existing c code with NETMF ?

Posted by cutlass on 01 June 2013 - 04:03 PM in General Discussion

Well, I never could get into the wiki to post my article "Building an Interop Assembly for Netduinio Plus 2", so I'm going to attach it here.

 

There are two files,

1)  BuildingInteropAssemblyForNetduinoPlus2.zip

  contains the article and all the source, projects, etc.

2)  demopeekpokefirmware.dfu

  optional, contains a pre-built firmware image with the sample interop in case you want to play a bit without going through the trouble to build.

 

The sample project is simple, but a bit useful since it lets you read and write to arbitrary memory locations.  Since the hardware is memory mapped, you can play with features not normally accessible; for instance, in the demo, I use the on-chip hardware random number generator, and also read the chip's unique serial number.

 

Anyway, hopefully its useful to someone, and I'll move it to the wiki if that ever gets fixed.

Wow, great write up and examples!

THANKS!




#50158 Detect power loss on VIN

Posted by cutlass on 01 June 2013 - 03:28 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Paul, don't forget, the analog pins are not 5v tolerant.  Only the digital pins are 5v tolerant.

Very true!  I know that first hand. :)

 

Also, the code that you showed has a minor miscalculation. 

The line
private const int MAX_VALUE = 1023;

should be:

private const int MAX_VALUE = 1024;

 

 

See:

http://forums.netdui...etduino-plus-2/




#50040 120v Current Sensor?

Posted by cutlass on 27 May 2013 - 11:29 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I'm glad that you're using inductive current measurement!

 

IMHO, the datasheet you linked to looks similar to the cruddy datasheets that I see for ~90% of the arduino shields. :)

 

 

EDIT:  Seems like the Pulse Electronics sidewinder series need a special sensor or SOC that supports it.

So, they won't work without additional support circuitry.  Off hand, I don't know of another current sensor with good accuracy and linearity over the range that you need.

 

I've used the ones by Pulse Electronics before.  They work, they have real specs, and they have real data sheets. :)

Even at the low end of their measurement range (0.1amps) they have an error of less than 1%.  By ~10% of full scale, the error goes down to ~0.05%.

The PA3206 or PA3208 would be a good choice.  You don't want a "huge opening" for the sensor and a small wire.

 

PA3206NL 460?V/A460 0.1A–>40 A
PA3208NL 460?V/A460  0.1A–>120 A

 

Some links:

http://www.pulseelec....com/sidewinder

 

http://www.pulseelec...nload/3775/g043

 

http://productfinder...sheets/P698.pdf

 

http://www.st.com/st.../CD00289924.pdf

 

PA3206

Posted Image

 

 

 

PA3208

Posted Image

 

 

Good Luck!




#50027 is it possible to use existing c code with NETMF ?

Posted by cutlass on 27 May 2013 - 04:40 PM in General Discussion

@ziggurat29

The links look interesting.

Thanks!




#50023 is it possible to use existing c code with NETMF ?

Posted by cutlass on 27 May 2013 - 02:52 PM in General Discussion

I would love it if there was some "non very painful" way to directly run un-managed "C" code on the netduino.  That is, I do not want to have to compile the kernel (and buy a $2K compiler).

For me, I'm not talking about code converted to C# and crawling through the simplistic (to save space) NETMF interpreter.

Then, I could do "similar" things like when I run an embedded processor on an FPGA.  There, I have the FPGA do the fast stuff and the processor do the I/O.

For the netduino, I'd love to be able to do fast stuff and just pass parameters/info between the fast "C" module, and the C# I/O handler.

 

 

 

If you build your firmware, and make an 'interop assembly', you can expose an interface to your code to NetMF applications.  The firmware ultimately is C/C++ itself.  In this way it is conceptually similar to making a JNI

 

Any chance that you know of a thread or web page that gives more detail on how to do that for the netduino? :)

BTW, for others that don't know JNI=Java Native Interface.

 

Thanks!




#49960 DFUSE troubleshoot

Posted by cutlass on 25 May 2013 - 01:39 PM in General Discussion

What OS are you using?

IIRC, only some versions work on XP.

And, as always, run the program as admin if you're not already on an admin account.




#49938 Power with 20V

Posted by cutlass on 24 May 2013 - 07:28 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

BTW, the zener and the LDO will have to convert the input voltages down.

When they do that, they generate heat.

The more current that is converted, the more heat that is generated.

 

So, basically, do not run a shield/SDcard/etc from the N+2.  It wouldn't hurt if you glued the Zener to the N+2 board.  In fact, it would help with heat dissipation from the zener. :)




#49937 Power with 20V

Posted by cutlass on 24 May 2013 - 07:13 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Hi.

 

 Define "20volts".  Is that 20.00v, 21.0v, etc. :)

 

Basically, put a 12V 5W zener diode (1N5349B) in series (in line)  with the power input, and you'll be fine.

Zener diodes are "simple low cost" voltage-regulators.

 

The schematics for the N+2 are here:

http://www.netduino....2/schematic.pdf

 

Power input section:

Posted Image

 

 

In the upper right, you'll see the Barrel connector.  The power comes in there.

 

The power then goes through an SS15-TP diode.  That also drops the input voltage down by at least 0.50volts.

The spec for the SS15-TP diode is here:  http://www.mccsemi.c...SS110(HSMA).PDF .

 

The power then goes to an MC33269DT-5.0G Low Drop Out voltage converter (on the left of the Barrel connector on the schematics). The MC33269DT-5.0G has a max voltage input of 20.0volts.  IMHO, you want it lower than that. 

The spec for the MC33269DT-5.0G LDO is here : (http://www.onsemi.co...l/MC33269-D.PDF )

 

 

You can even get get the zener on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.../dp/B0086FBOFQ/

At Digikey: http://www.digikey.c...MSCT-ND/1114291

Spec for the zener: http://www.mccsemi.c...369b(Do-15).pdf

 

Note that the Zener has a voltage output tolerance of +/-5%.  No problem either direction.

 

Good Luck!




#49919 Does any one would like to buy a more powerful STM32F407 MF board?

Posted by cutlass on 24 May 2013 - 01:02 PM in General Discussion

Admin: Could you please point to where the forum rules can be found and also clarify which rule(s) was broken?

When I first saw the post, I looked and looked for the forum rules.  After few minutes, I could not find them, so I stopped .  BTW, I run a very locked down version of Firefox.

So, my version/mods/add-ons to Firefox may have something to do with me not finding the forum rules in a few minutes.

 

In general, it's against most forum rules to "offer products for sale" (unless in designated areas).  Obviously, there are gray areas.

 

On the interweb, I was on the email mailing lists (using listservers) for various car models "way back before time". :)

Then, the initial POS "first/second generation forums" on the web.

And now, forums like these.  Yes, I've been around since the Mammoths roamed the earth. :)

 

In the car forums, there are often posts like "Ported heads for sale, low mileage" in the tech/lounge areas.  Unless those posts get locked asap, the forums eventually get many people per day posting "for sale" threads in the tech/lounge areas.

What makes it even worse is that there are a number of specific areas setup so that people can sell/buy between each other - with no ebay/etc fees.

But, many more people view the lounge/tech forums.  So, people will post "For Sale/What's It Worth" threads in the tech/lounge areas to get more exposure.  IMHO, it's a massive PITA!




#49783 maximize ADC sampling rate

Posted by cutlass on 22 May 2013 - 03:04 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Netduino Plus 2 has "100k+" of RAM. 40000 shorts is already over 78 kB, then you need memory for other things as well. That explains it quite well.

Thanks!

Yea, I was thinking about the size of the ram.  But, I thought that the N+2 had at least 256K of ram. :) Because of work, I have the L2 size of the Intel i7's on my mind.  Because of contention/performance, I have to keep some cores(program threads) within the 256K limit and be aware of my shared variable accesses (with regards to performance/time).

Doing fast real-time stuff in a mobile i7 - very neat!  And, impressive 64bit Floating Point performance.  Download the Intel LINPACK benchmark test (http://software.inte...cense-agreement) and run it on any decent i-series processor - wow! :)

BTW, using the Intel Compiler/etc is a very good idea for anyone looking for max performance from an Intel processor.




#49729 My daydream - FPGA/ARM platform

Posted by cutlass on 21 May 2013 - 10:21 PM in General Discussion

I have two of the TI smart watches.  I never did anything with them. :)

 

I've done a lot of FPGA and microprocessor stuff, because that's what I do. :)  I'm mainly a hardware engineer, but I also do software.  I even do Android apps.  But, sorry, I don't drink the evil Apple kool-aid at all.

 

I'm similar to the mechanical engineers that design electrical motors, starters, alternators, etc.  For them, the are primarily mechanical, but they also have to be very proficient in electrical.

 

For the past ~10+ years, I've been doing a lot of "Control" stuff.  That type of stuff leads to FPGAs, DAC, ADCs, processors, "firmware", and often some simple GUI to debug/communicate/set-values.  Sometimes it's max performance at all costs, sometimes very low power, sometimes very low cost, sometimes aerospace, etc.

 

Yea, I could make a lot more money going into pure software, especially doing apps.  But, if I can make a decent living doing what I LOVE to do, why would I change? :)

 

I don't know about Sweden, but in the US, I'd say engineers leave at a rate of ~~30% every ~3-5 years.  Many/most leave because they don't like, or they hate, what they do.  I've been fortunate in the way the industry has moved since I graduated.  When I graduated, doing stuff with SSI (smal scal integration) through-hole chips (like registers, flips flops, etc) was the typical way of doing hardware designs.  Now, it's writing Verilog, VHDL, etc for FPGAs, ASICs.  So, I see doing hardware and software as being similar now. :)




#49629 maximize ADC sampling rate

Posted by cutlass on 21 May 2013 - 04:17 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I need this done for my thesis due in a couple weeks!
 

 

Is this an undergrad thesis?

Gee, even the engineers that I know that are super great writers took ~1 semester to write their thesis.

 

My masters thesis took me over ~1-1/2 semesters to write.  Ugh!  I thought that I could do it in ~1/2 semester.  And, that was after all of my research was done.  I guess it also depends on how thesis pre-reviews are done at the school.  And, how much feedback/requests/etc the thesis committees give.




#49628 My daydream - FPGA/ARM platform

Posted by cutlass on 21 May 2013 - 03:02 AM in General Discussion

Yes, I was thinking of something like that but more in a general scence than a specific device or vendor. I recently ordered a Cypress PSoC 4 demo board and a PSoC 1 dev kit to explore that magic tech:
http://www.cypress.c...9&source=header

 

Wow, another PSOC user. :)

About 6 years ago, I used a PSOC 1 for a low cost, high-volume controls application.

 

IMHO, the PSOC1 is very slow and has a small code space. Especially if you have to do any FP.

And, ?ARM? bought Hi-tech (they make nice compilers).  The other PSOC compiler is slower and produced bigger code sizes.  I have the Hi-tech compiler for the PSOC1 on 3 machines (max allowed).  Hi-tech stopped offering licenses after they were bought out.

 

Also, back then, the drivers that Cypress had for things like the I2C did almost no error checking (to save on code space).  So, that meant going in, and modifying their semi-cryptic (because of space and speed reasons) assembler code.

 

Still, if you're looking for a very low-cost embedded solution, the PSOC line is nice. :)

For the project that I did, the board/parts/assembly/etc had to be under $10 (the desired price target was much less).  Back then, I came in between the max and desired target cost range.

 

For what the product had to do, the PSOC1 was nice and worked great.  For the all options that we would have liked, the PSOC1 was too slow and didn't offer enough code space. Still, I was able to cram a lot of optional features for the product in that "small slow" PSOC1. :)




#49627 maximize ADC sampling rate

Posted by cutlass on 21 May 2013 - 02:44 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I was interested to see what the ADC max sample rate was with the N+2.  So, I did a test.  The code is below, and the project is attached.

 

Quick summary:  The ADC max sample rate is roughly between 10,000 and 11,000 samples/second.

 

The max size array that I could allocate was 40,000 shorts.  I'm not sure why.  But, that gives ~3 seconds of samples.

To do the test, I ran the code, waited for "OuterLoop Counter: 5" to be displayed, then counted until "OuterLoop Counter: 15" was displayed.  Good enough to get a ballpark figure for the max sample rate.

 

 

Some notes, unlike with .NET.
1) No difference was found between the release and debug versions.

2) No difference was found with the optimize option checked or unchecked.

3) The Microsoft suggested method (as shown below) to eliminate range checking did not improve performance.

for (int i = 0; i < ADC_samples_int.Length; i++) {
  ADC_samples_int[i] = (short)adcPort_A0.Read();
}
 

 

 

My ADC max sample rate test code:

using System.Net;using System.Net.Sockets;using System.Threading;using Microsoft.SPOT;using Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware;using SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware;using SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino;namespace AnalogTestMaxSampleRate {    public class Program {        public static void Main() {            // Define and initialize variables             int inner_loop_counter_int = 0;            int outer_loop_counter_int = 0;            short[] ADC_samples_int;            ADC_samples_int = new short[40000];            SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.AnalogInput adcPort_A0 = new SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.AnalogInput(Pins.GPIO_PIN_A0);                        inner_loop_counter_int = 0;            outer_loop_counter_int = 1;            // do forever...            while (true) {                inner_loop_counter_int = 0;                while (inner_loop_counter_int < ADC_samples_int.Length) {                    // read from ADC Port_A0                    ADC_samples_int[inner_loop_counter_int++] = (short)adcPort_A0.Read();                }                Debug.Print("OuterLoop Counter: " + outer_loop_counter_int++.ToString());            }        }    }}// NOTES:// 1) No difference was found between the release and debug versions.//// 2) No difference was found with the optimize option checked or unchecked.//// 3) The Microsoft suggested method (as shown below) to eliminate range checking did not improve performance. // for (int i = 0; i < ADC_samples_int.Length; i++) {//    ADC_samples_int[i] = (short)adcPort_A0.Read();// }//

Attached Files




#49620 My daydream - FPGA/ARM platform

Posted by cutlass on 20 May 2013 - 11:59 PM in General Discussion

Anyway, here's my daydream of what it could be
 

Think of how  programmable logic like FPGA and CPLD devices work and how they let you implement pretty much any hardware in a single device, basically an ASIC. Imagine different hardware modules available from a palette of  ready made drop-in software modules through some easy to use (semi-)graphical IDE. Also imagine using C# (or VB.NET) as the glue between the modules to orchestrate them - instead of VHDL (!!)

 

A development platform like that would virtually let you implement your whole breadboard in a single device!

 

There would be much less need for external parts like shift registers, 74LSxxx (and, or, xor, etc), transistors, IO-expanders, LCD backpacks or even motor drivers and audio devices...well almost anyway, you'd still have to add a LED or a switch here and there  :lol: 

Would you like a platform like that or is it just me?   :)

 

Are you talking about the Xilinx Zynq?

 

http://www.xilinx.co.../zynq-7000.html

 

Posted Image

Posted Image

Posted Image

 

 

The Xilinx Zynq is a multi-core ARM CPU that has a Xilinx FPGA fabric attached to it.  It's very different from the previous Xilinx embedded CPU in FPGA solutions, and what the other offer.  Those are FPGAs with embedded CPUs. 

For the Xilinx Zynq, it can be used as a stand-alone multi-core ARM processor, and never ever worry about, or do anything about, the FPGA core.  The CPU is "king.  Before, the CPU/software had to go through the hardware tools.

 

Also, Xilinx has the 32-bit Microblaze (a nice CPU) embedded processor option.  It's a "softcore" - it's made up out of the FPGA gates. IIRC, it's possible to have up to eight on an FPGA (depending on the FPGA).  The Microblaze has many compile options, cache, FP, etc.  It costs ~$3K for the software.

 

For free, Xilinx also has the picoblaze 8-bit CPU - 64K max memory, no cache.

 

I've been doing Microblaze designs for ~7 years.  I did one picoblaze many years ago.

 

 

For Xilinx MicroBlaze:

http://www.xilinx.co.../microblaze.htm

 

MicroBlaze Soft Processor Core
MicroBlaze™ is the industry-leader in FPGA-based soft processors, with advanced architecture options like AXI or PLB interface, Memory Management Unit (MMU), instruction and data-side cache, configurable pipeline depth, Floating-Point unit (FPU), and much more. MicroBlaze is a 32-bit RISC Harvard architecture soft processor core that is included free with both Vivado Design Edition and IDS Embedded Edition. Highly flexible architecture, plus a rich instruction set optimized for embedded applications, delivers the exact processing system you need at the lowest system cost possible.

 

High-Performance, Small Footprint, or something In-between?
MicroBlaze contains over 70 user-configurable options, enabling virtually any processor use case from a very small footprint state machine or microcontroller to a high performance compute-intensive micrprocessor-based system running Linux, operating in either 3-stage pipeline mode to optimize size, or 5-stage pipeline mode to optimize speed delivering faster DMIPs performance than any other FPGA-based soft-processing solution.

 

 

For performance, FYI:

(BTW, you can still add Microblaze processors, in addition to the dedicated-silicon ARM CPUs in the Zynq :))

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