FPGA

LabVIEW FPGA, MicroBlaze, and UART – Full Guide

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Working from scratch, I created a LabVIEW FPGA project that imports a MicroBlaze design that communicates with LabVIEW via a UART, and has the ability to change the elf file in a much shorter time frame than before. I did this by adding the MicroBlaze to the project after it had been exported to Vivado, … Read more

30,000 Foot View

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I normally avoid shop words or “corporate speak” because I feel it dehumanizes us, but sometimes these phrases are necessary.  So here is the “30,000 foot” view.  And please pardon the appearance of my flow charts and diagrams, I am not a graphic designer… All images open in a new tab, so just click on … Read more

AXI4 + MicroBlaze != 64-bit

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The 10 Gigabit MAC/transceiver gives me 64 bit data words.  I currently think I am giving and getting  64 bit data words, but I am really only using 32 bits.  I came to this conclusion after I tried reading a 64 bit word and saw the data was simply two repeated 32 bit words.  Additionally … Read more

IP Integration Node vs CLIP

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I wired up the 10 gigabit ethernet MAC to my MicroBlaze instance to my host computer and compiled/synthesized everything.  I then turn on my “quiet” PXIe-1062Q and fire up my tester application and it did not work…  I open up an isolated tester – “Fpga-Mac-Top.vi”, and it worked.  I open up the isolated MicroBlaze tester … Read more

Pros and Cons of LabVIEW FPGA

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Ever since I started developing this LabVIEW FPGA project that uses a MicroBlaze soft processor to process TCP streams, I have learned a lot and can comment on the pros and cons of using LabVIEW FPGA vs using a traditional Xilinx/Altera based FPGA development approach. For starters, LabVIEW FPGA blows every single other FPGA development … Read more

New Code Added to GitHub – MicroBlaze MCS, IO Bus and LabVIEW

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I just uploaded some code to GitHub that is a full demonstration on how to use LabVIEW FPGA 2017, the MicroBlaze MCS core and the IO Bus that is attached to the MicroBlaze MCS. Clone the following repository: https://github.com/JohnStratoudakis/LabVIEW_Fpga/tree/master/05_MicroBlaze_Mcs/02_MicroBlaze_Mcs_IO_Bus and open the LabVIEW project: https://github.com/JohnStratoudakis/LabVIEW_Fpga/blob/master/05_MicroBlaze_Mcs/02_MicroBlaze_Mcs_IO_Bus/02_MicroBlaze_Mcs_IO_Bus.lvproj Look at the Vivado 2015.4 project: https://github.com/JohnStratoudakis/LabVIEW_Fpga/blob/master/05_MicroBlaze_Mcs/02_MicroBlaze_Mcs_IO_Bus/MicroBlaze_Mcs_IO_Bus/MicroBlaze_Mcs_IO_Bus.xpr And finally, using … Read more

How to Use the Microblaze Micro Controller System from LabVIEW

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The MicroBlaze Micro Controller Syste (MCS) is a soft-core processor that can be customized and placed inside the fabric of your FPGA.  The uses of this are limitless. Requirements: LabVIEW 2017 http://www.ni.com/download/labview-development-system-2017/6679/en/ LabVIEW 2017 FPGA Module http://www.ni.com/download/labview-fpga-module-2017/6635/en/ LabVIEW 2017 FPGA Module Xilinx Compilation Tools for Vivado 2015.4 http://www.ni.com/download/labview-fpga-module-2017/6634/en/ Xilinx Software Development Kit version 2015.4 https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/embedded-software/sdk.html … Read more