EMBEDDED LINUX ON FPGA INSTRUMENTS FOR CONTROL INTERFACE AND REMOTE MANAGEMENT
Geof Cunningham · 2011
FPGAs are now large enough that they can easily accommodate an embedded 32-bit processor which can be used to significantly extend the capability of an FPGA system. Running embedded Linux gives the user many more options for interfacing to their FPGA-based instrument, and in some cases this enables removal of the middle-person PC. It is possible to manage the instrument directly by ModBus (130 Hz poll rate and 6.6ms latency) and StarkStream (42 MB/s transfer and 83 MB/s raw throughput), and use these protocols as a low level layer to communicate with EPICS or TANGO. Additionally it is possible to use the embedded processor to facilitate remote updating of firmware which, in combination with a watchdog and network booting ensures that full remote management over Ethernet is possible.