Master Thesis Evaluating Xilinx MicroBlaze for Network SoC solutions

• Author Peter Magnusson
• Master's Thesis in Computer Engineering, Luleå University

Abstract

This thesis aims to create a System on Chip solution for various network devices. A solution with network peripherals, processor core and network software in a single chip is designed and evaluated.

Typical applications of a network System on Chip include Ethernet switches, Internet-enabled embedded systems, small Internet Protocol clients for handheld devices and simple Internet gateways.

The the solution utilizes the Xilinx MicroBlaze soft processor core, MicroBlaze Development Kit, IBM CoreConnect On-Chip Peripheral Bus (OPB) peripherals and Xilinx Virtex Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).

Artifacts

• PDF: Evaluating Xilinx MicroBlaze for Network SoC Applications
• Source code: eth v1 00 a Synchronous MAC for MicroBlaze OPB
• Source code: eth v1 00 b Abandoned garbage... code rot.
• Source code: eth v1 00 c Asynchronous MAC for MicroBlace OPB

Imported from an old CVS backup using cvsfast-import

This repository is largely based on late 2003 CVS backup I found on an old disk. It should include most of the artifacts produced in the master thesis but did not fully represent the last developments. It should mostly be late changes to the report LaTeX / LyX file that are missing.

The actual report PDF is the lastest version that was published on the university master thesis publication index.

Acknowledgment

The evaluation of the Xilinx MicroBlaze has been performed as a Master Thesis work in Computer Science and Engineering. The work was performed at the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and Embedded Internet Systems Laboratory (EISLAB) at Luleå University of Technology.

I wish to thank

• Ph.d Per Lindgren for supervising my thesis.
• Ph.d student Jonas Thor for feedback on various computer engineering topics.
• M.Sc student Jens Eliasson for various MicroBlaze discussions.
• M.Sc students Frederik Schmid, Jan Dahlberg, Johan Mattsson, Stefan Nilsson and Jimmie Wiklander for reusing and verifying my Ethernet MAC.
• M.Sc students Stefan Nilsson, Frederik Schmid and Jimmie Wiklander for MicroBlaze lwIP implementation.
• Jens Eliasson, Tim Johansson and Sara Lidqvist for proof-reading my thesis.
• Xilinx Inc for permitting reprint of figures originally published by Xilinx Inc.
• IBM for permitting reprint of figures originally published by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
• During the thesis work, I have taught MicroBlaze based System on Chip (SoC) development to M.Sc students in the Project in Digital Synthesis course at CSEE. Additional credits goes to these students for valuable input.