Ubiquitious 10GbE

Five months after our travels to Dublin we have the NetFPGA-10G "NF10" board lit up and shuttling data across 10GbE and PCIe. There's no looking back, 10GbE is here.

NF10 in Core980 with ML605

It's About Time

We care about time. An ongoing effort is to improve the quality of timestamp available to IP cores inside an FPGA to sub-nanosecond precision. One way forward is to use a stable, but not terribly accurate, on-board XO; and then to discipline it to a highly-accurate, but transient, reference from a GPS. Our approach uses a PI servo that is smart about when to freewheel. No magic. Just math.

Agilent 53230A 20pS Counter/Timer

Narcissism of Small Differences

One of Seth's posts, as it often does, got me thinking.

• emacs vs vi
• VHDL vs Verilog
• AXI vs OCP

The good news is that we care. I was going to add "Functional vs Imperative", then reflected, not such a small difference.

NetFPGA-10G and OpenCPI

Xilinx ran an article in their "Xcell Journal" describing NetFPGA-10G and the supporting role of OpenCPI.

At Xilinx Research Labs (Dublin)

10Gb Ethernet

We've been fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to the NetFPGA-10Gb effort some of our expertise in PCIe DMA. Just back from a few days in Dublin sorting out the twisty bits. A great team!

PCIe DMA (October-2010)

Abstract and Concrete

There's no doubt that Hardware/Software co-design is a popular and challenging topic. In the embedded world, there is an added twist that real world voltage potentials exist and currents flow, as a result of the hardware and software. It's a system! Throughput, Latency, and Power that you can actually measure unambiguously!
We find it grounding to put drafty concepts on simple footings.

AR RF Bench (August-2010)

OCP and AXI

OCP and AXI seem a lot like Coke and Pepsi. RTL interface specifications and refreshing cola beverages. The choice of one or another does not matter at a certain level of abstraction. As an application-domain specifier, you may not care very much: "I'd like a stream interface please". Of course, the particular dining establishment you are visiting may respond to you "Oh, we don't have Coke, is Pepsi OK?"
This seems to have worked out well, at least with the cola beverage thing. And we are hoping the same will play out with OCP and AXI. Some establishments will have a predilection for one or the other. That's fine. Both OCP and AXI can provide interface patterns suitable for control, streaming, and messaging. We've abstracted these patterns in OpenCPI's Worker Interface Profiles. These interface patterns for RTL are like classic, diet and caffeine-free for cola.

Sometimes work allows some laughs (FCCM-2010)