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). Notable soft microprocessors include:
Core comparision
| Processor | Developer | Open Source | Bus Support | Notes | Project Home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MicroBlaze | Xilinx |
|
OPB, FSL, LMB | Xilinx MicroBlaze | |
| PicoBlaze | Xilinx |
|
Xilinx PicoBlaze | ||
| Nios, Nios II | Altera |
|
Altera Nios II | ||
| Cortex-M1 | Arm |
|
[1] | ||
| Mico32 | Lattice |
|
LatticeMico32 | ||
| AEMB | Shawn Tan |
|
Wishbone | MicroBlaze EDK 3.2 compatible Verilog core | AEMB |
| OpenFire | Virginia Tech CCM Lab |
|
OPB, FSL | Binary compatible with the MicroBlaze | VT OpenFire |
| PacoBlaze | Pablo Bleyer |
|
Compatible with the PicoBlaze processors | PacoBlaze |
See also
- SoC (System-on-a-chip)
- SoPC (System on Programmable Chip)
- FPGA (Field-programmable gate array)
External links
- FPGA CPU News
- Freedom CPU website
- Microprocessor cores on Opencores.org
- NikTech 32 bit RISC Microprocessor MANIK. Is a complete processor available for FREE, includes DDR Controller, ETHERNET Mac.GCC, binutils complete build environment for cygwin is also provided. The developer resources also provide examples and SOCs for XILINX / DIGILENT Spartan Starter kits. A useful system can be built in the 200K Spartan 3 kit.
