A Generic PCI Based FPGA Coprocessor?

graveyhead asks: "Inspired by a recent Slashdot article, I came across this fantastic package from the fine students in the Configurable Computing Laboratory at BYU: JHDL, which is a set of open source FPGA CAD tools. I am writing a proposal for a prototype system and I have a requirement for a 32 or 64 bit PCI card compatible with JHDL. I do not require any IP cores (which Xilinx seems to want to sell me hundreds of 'em), since our project uses its own custom cores. Also, I will not be building additional hardware around the FPGA processor, so the package needs to be fully self-contained. I simply need the ability to use JHDL to program the FPGA device over PCI under Linux, execute my circuit with parameterized values, and return the result. I found these boards, but I'm not sure which is appropriate or compatible, or if there are better alternatives that I am not finding in a similar price range (up to USD2000). Preferably, I want a chip with lots (1-10M+) of programmable gates."

Comments

A bit overkill

[brejc8]

1-10 mil gates is a very large number.
Take a look at my MIPS on an FPGA. That used less than 100k vertex gates including MMU and other things youprobably dont need.

Also why PCI? Why not talk to it via serial/usb/network? And why not make your own? We made these for just over £100 ($150) each (plus virtex). having the board outside the PC allows you to have more freedom and external connections to do things like this. Also it allows you to write a simpler download software routine to program the thing (serial vs PCI).

Re:A bit overkill

[chriss]

Also why PCI? Why not talk to it via serial/usb/network? And why not make your own?

I'm coming from the software side, so for me an FPGA has always been kind of an hardware accelerator for my software. My prefered idea is to plug one of these into my machine, learn to program it to do a specific part in e.g. my webserver and never bother with the fact that it is really hardware. So I need the bandwidth of PCI to do something usefull and do not want to touch a soldering iron. I'm aware that there are many more possibilities, but asume that in total numbers more programmers are actualy interested in FPGA than hardware engineers, since there are many more programmers than hardware engineers.

Chriss

Re:generic coprocessor?

[Jamie Lokier]

I believe video coprocessors tend to be quite specialised for video ops.

Even if they weren't, programming a maths coprocessor is very different from programming an FPGA, and the things you can do are very different.

An FPGA is a programmable logic circuit, and you can connect almost any kind of digital electronics to it. From flashing lights to memory to network interfaces to bus interfaces (like PCI and USB) to whatever else turns you on.