Embedded Microcontrollers and FPGAs Soft-cores

Abstract

The FPGA’s soft-cores main idea is to provide designers with the flexibility of creating a perfect fit in terms of processor(s) , peripherals and memory interfaces for embedded applications, this perfect fit usually, but not always, can imply a tradeoff with performance and cost. This paper presents a comparison in speed, power, flexibility and cost between a microcontroller and its soft-core version. For this, an HDL synthesizable soft-core of an 8 bit microcontroller capable of executing the same assembler code of a middle range Microchip PIC, as the 16F84, is performed. The delays introduced by the FPGA interconnect is considered after synthesis by performing post placement & routing simulations.