Soft microprocessor

A soft microprocessor (also called softcore microprocessor or a soft processor) is a microprocessor core that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis. It can be implemented via different semiconductor devices containing programmable logic (e.g., ASIC, FPGA, CPLD), including both high-end and commodity variations. ^[1]

Most systems, if they use a soft processor at all, only use a single soft processor. However, a few designers tile as many soft cores onto an FPGA as will fit. ^[2] In those multi-core systems, rarely used resources can be shared between all the cores in a cluster.

While many people put exactly one soft microprocessor on a FPGA, a sufficiently large FPGA can hold two or more soft microprocessors, resulting in a multi-core processor. The number of soft processors on a single FPGA is limited only by the size of the FPGA. ^[3] Some people have put dozens or hundreds of soft microprocessors on a single FPGA. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]} This is one way to implement massive parallelism in computing and can likewise be applied to in-memory computing.

A soft microprocessor and its surrounding peripherals implemented in a FPGA is less vulnerable to obsolescence than a discrete processor. ^{[9] [10] [11]}

Core comparison

Processor	Developer	Open source	Bus support	Notes	Project home	Description language
based on the ARM instruction set architecture
Amber	Conor Santifort	LGPLv2.1	Wishbone	ARMv2a 3-stage or 5-stage pipeline	Project page at Opencores	Verilog
Cortex-M1	ARM	No		70–200 MHz, 32-bit RISC		Verilog
based on the AVR instruction set architecture
Navré	Sébastien Bourdeauducq	Yes	Direct SRAM	Atmel AVR-compatible 8-bit RISC	Project page at Opencores	Verilog
pAVR	Doru Cuturela	Yes		Atmel AVR-compatible 8-bit RISC	Project page at Opencores	VHDL
softavrcore	Andras Pal	Yes	Standard AVR buses (core-coupled I/O, synchronous SRAM, synchronous program ROM)	Atmel AVR-compatible 8-bit RISC (up to AVR5), peripherals and SoC features included	Project page at Opencores	Verilog
based on the MicroBlaze instruction set architecture
AEMB	Shawn Tan	Yes	Wishbone	MicroBlaze EDK 3.2 compatible	AEMB	Verilog
MicroBlaze	Xilinx	No	PLB, OPB, FSL, LMB, AXI4		Xilinx MicroBlaze
OpenFire	Virginia Tech CCM Lab	Yes	OPB, FSL	Binary compatible with the MicroBlaze	[12]	Verilog
SecretBlaze	LIRMM, University of Montpellier / CNRS	Yes	Wishbone	MicroBlaze ISA, VHDL	SecretBlaze	VHDL
based on the MCS-51 instruction set architecture
MCL51	MicroCore Labs	Yes	Ultra-small-footprint microsequencer-based 8051 core	312 Artix-7 LUTs. Quad-core 8051 version is 1227 LUTs.	MCL51 Core
TSK51/52	Altium	Royalty-free	Wishbone / Intel 8051	8-bit Intel 8051 instruction set compatible, lower clock cycle alternative	Embedded Design on Altium Wiki
based on the MIPS instruction set architecture
BERI	University of Cambridge	BSD		MIPS	Project page	Bluespec
Dossmatik	René Doss	CC BY-NC 3.0, except commercial applicants have to pay a licence fee.	Pipelined bus	MIPS I instruction set pipeline stages	Dossmatik	VHDL
TSK3000A	Altium	Royalty-free	Wishbone	32-bit R3000-style RISC modified Harvard-architecture CPU	Embedded Design on Altium Wiki
based on the PicoBlaze instruction set architecture
PacoBlaze	Pablo Bleyer	Yes		Compatible with the PicoBlaze processors	PacoBlaze	Verilog
PicoBlaze	Xilinx	No			Xilinx PicoBlaze	VHDL, Verilog
based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture
f32c	University of Zagreb	BSD	AXI, SDRAM, SRAM	32-bit, RISC-V / MIPS ISA subsets (retargetable), GCC toolchain	f32c	VHDL
NEORV32	Stephan Nolting	BSD	Wishbone b4, AXI4	rv32[i/e] [m] [a] [c] [b] [u] [Zfinx] [Zicsr] [Zifencei], RISC-V-compliant, CPU & SoC available, highly customizable, GCC toolchain	GitHub OpenCores	VHDL
VexRiscv	SpinalHDL	Yes	AXI4 / Avalon	32-bit, RISC-V, up to 340 MHz on Artix 7. Up to 1.44 DMIPS/MHz.	https://github.com/SpinalHDL/VexRiscv	VHDLVerilog (SpinalHDL)
based on the SPARC instruction set architecture
LEON2(-FT)	ESA	Yes	AMBA2	SPARC V8	ESA	VHDL
LEON3/4	Aeroflex Gaisler	Yes	AMBA2	SPARC V8	Aeroflex Gaisler	VHDL
OpenPiton	Princeton Parallel Group	Yes		Manycore SPARC V9	OpenPiton	Verilog
OpenSPARC T1	Sun	Yes		64-bit	OpenSPARC.net	Verilog
Tacus/PIPE5	TemLib	Yes	Pipelined bus	SPARC V8	TEMLIB	VHDL
based on the x86 instruction set architecture
CPU86	HT-Lab	Yes		8088-compatible CPU in VHDL	cpu86	VHDL
MCL86	MicroCore Labs	Yes	8088 BIU provided. Others easy to create.	Cycle accurate 8088/8086 implemented with a microsequencer. Less than 2% utilization of Kintex-7.	MCL86 Core
s80x86	Jamie Iles	GPLv3	Custom	80186-compatible GPLv3 core	s80x86	SystemVerilog
Zet	Zeus Gómez Marmolejo	Yes	Wishbone	x86 PC clone	Zet	Verilog
ao486	Aleksander Osman	3-Clause BSD	Avalon	i486 SX compatible core	ao486	Verilog
based on the PowerPC/Power instruction set architecture
PowerPC 405S	IBM	No	CoreConnect	32-bit PowerPC v.2.03 Book E	IBM	Verilog
PowerPC 440S	IBM	No	CoreConnect	32-bit PowerPC v.2.03 Book E	IBM	Verilog
PowerPC 470S	IBM	No	CoreConnect	32-bit PowerPC v.2.05 Book E	IBM	Verilog
Microwatt	IBM/OpenPOWER	CC-BY 4.0	Wishbone	64-bit PowerISA 3.0 proof of concept	Microwatt @ Github	VHDL
Chiselwatt	IBM/OpenPOWER	CC-BY 4.0	Wishbone	64-bit PowerISA 3.0	Chiselwatt @ Github	Chisel
Libre-SOC	Libre-SoC.org	BSD/LGPLv2+	Wishbone	64-bit PowerISA 3.0. CPU/GPU/VPU implementation and custom vector instructions	Libre-SoC.org	python/nMigen
A2I	IBM/OpenPOWER	CC-BY 4.0	Custom PBus	64-bit PowerPC 2.6 Book E. In order core	A2I @ Github	VHDL
A2O	IBM/OpenPOWER	CC-BY 4.0	Custom PBus	64-bit PowerPC 2.7 Book E. Out of order core	A2O @ Github	Verilog
Other architectures
ARC	ARC International, Synopsys	No		16/32/64-bit ISA RISC	DesignWare ARC	Verilog
ERIC5	Entner Electronics	No		9-bit RISC, very small size, C-programmable	ERIC5	VHDL
H2 CPU	Richard James Howe	MIT	Custom	16-bit Stack Machine, designed to execute Forth directly, small	H2 CPU	VHDL
Instant SoC	FPGA Cores	No	Custom	32-bit RISC-V M Extension, SoC defined by C++	Instant SoC	VHDL
JOP	Martin Schoeberl	Yes	SimpCon / Wishbone (extension)	Stack-oriented, hard real-time support, executing Java bytecode directly	Jop	VHDL
LatticeMico8	Lattice	Yes	Wishbone		LatticeMico8	Verilog
LatticeMico32	Lattice	Yes	Wishbone		LatticeMico32	Verilog
LXP32	Alex Kuznetsov	MIT	Wishbone	32-bit, 3-stage pipeline, register file based on block RAM	lxp32	VHDL
MCL65	MicroCore Labs	Yes	Ultra-small-footprint microsequencer-based 6502 core	252 Spartan-7 LUTs. Clock cycle-exact.	MCL65 Core
MRISC32-A1	Marcus Geelnard	Yes	Wishbone, B4/pipelined	32-bit RISC/Vector CPU implementing the MRISC32 ISA	MRISC32	VHDL
NEO430	Stephan Nolting	Yes	Wishbone (Avalon, AXI4-Lite)	16-bit MSP430 ISA-compatible, very small size, many peripherals, highly customizable	NEO430	VHDL
Nios, Nios II	Altera	No	Avalon		Altera Nios II	Verilog
OpenRISC	OpenCores	Yes	Wishbone	32-bit; done in ASIC, Actel, Altera, Xilinx FPGA.		Verilog
SpartanMC	TU Darmstadt / TU Dresden	Yes	Custom (AXI support in development)	18-bit ISA (GNU Binutils / GCC support in development)	SpartanMC	Verilog
SYNPIC12	Miguel Angel Ajo Pelayo	MIT		PIC12F compatible, program synthesised in gates	nbee.es	VHDL
xr16	Jan Gray	No	XSOC abstract bus	16-bit RISC CPU and SoC featured in Circuit Cellar Magazine #116-118	XSOC/xr16	Schematic
YASEP	Yann Guidon	AGPLv3	Direct SRAM	16 or 32 bits, RTL in VHDL & asm in JS, microcontroller subset : ready	yasep.org (Firefox required)	VHDL
ZipCPU	Gisselquist Technology	GPLv3	Wishbone, B4/pipelined	32-bit CPU targeted for minimal FPGA resource usage	zipcpu.com	Verilog
ZPU	Zylin AS	Yes	Wishbone	Stack based CPU, configurable 16/32 bit datapath, eCos support	Zylin CPU	VHDL
RISC5	Niklaus Wirth	Yes	Custom	Running a complete graphical Oberon System including an editor and compiler. Software can be developed and ran on the same FPGA board.	www.projectoberon.com/	Verilog

See also

• System-on-a-chip (SoC)
  • Network-on-a-chip (NoC)
• Reconfigurable computing
  • Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)
• VHDL
• Verilog
  • SystemVerilog
• Hardware acceleration

References

1. http://www.dailycircuitry.com/2011/10/zet-soft-core-running-windows-30.html Archived 2018-10-13 at the Wayback Machine "Zet soft core running Windows 3.0" by Andrew Felch 2011
2. "Embedded.com - FPGA Architectures from 'A' to 'Z' : Part 2". Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2012-08-18. "FPGA Architectures from 'A' to 'Z'" by Clive Maxfield 2006
3. MicroBlaze Soft Processor: Frequently Asked Questions Archived 2011-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
4. István Vassányi. "Implementing processor arrays on FPGAs". 1998.
5. Zhoukun WANG and Omar HAMMAMI. "A 24 Processors System on Chip FPGA Design with Network on Chip".
6. John Kent. "Micro16 Array - A Simple CPU Array"
7. Kit Eaton. "1,000 Core CPU Achieved: Your Future Desktop Will Be a Supercomputer". 2011.
8. "Scientists Squeeze Over 1,000 Cores onto One Chip". 2011. Archived 2012-03-05 at the Wayback Machine
9. Joe DeLaere. ""Top 7 Reasons to Replace Your Microcontroller with a MAX 10 FPGA"" (PDF).
10. John Swan; Tomek Krzyzak. (2008). ""Using FPGAs to avoid microprocessor obsolescence"". Archived from the original on 2016-01-30.
11. Staff (2010-02-03). "FPGA processor IP needs to be supported". Electronics Weekly. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
12. "Overview :: OpenFire Processor Core :: OpenCores".

External links

• Soft CPU Cores for FPGA
• Detailed Comparison of 12 Soft Microprocessors
• FPGA CPU News
• Freedom CPU website
• Microprocessor cores on Opencores.org (Expand the "Processor" tab)
• NikTech 32 bit RISC Microprocessor MANIK.