Paper Details

%T Occam on Field Programmable Gate Arrays \- Steps towards the Para\-PC
%A Barry M. Cook, Roger M. A. Peel
%E Barry M. Cook
%B Proceedings of WoTUG\-22: Architectures, Languages and Techniques for Concurrent Systems
%X At the April 1998 WoTUG conference (WoTUG\-21), it was
   reported that ST Microelectronics was ceasing production of
   most of the transputer family and its associated serial link
   components. The possibility of WoTUG members producing
   transputer\-like devices to emulate many of the
   transputer\\[rs]s parallel processing and communication
   concepts was aired. The authors left this meeting with the
   challenge of designing and implementing their own
   transputer, preferably to be built in Field Programmable
   Gate Array (FPGA) devices rather than custom or semi\-custom
   silicon, for ease of prototyping and for flexibility of
   modification and
   re\-use.</p><p> One year later,
   this paper outlines the progress that has been made. Rather
   than just producing processor logic using the standard logic
   design methods, the authors have written a compiler that
   translates occam into a number of output formats that can be
   fed to various logic implementation packages. Occam programs
   may, however, be joined to logic modules designed in a
   conventional fashion, using synchronised channels in the
   usual manner. In addition to the DS\-Link interface that was
   announced by 4\-Links at WoTUG\-21, an OS\-Link module has
   been designed by the authors, and both of these may provide
   external communication interfaces between occam\-based
   hardware and the outside
   world.</p><p> Although in their
   early stages, this paper illustrates several designs that
   show how occam may be used to specify small processors
   suitable for mapping onto FPGAs. It also shows how occam is
   an ideal fast prototyping mechanism for peripheral
   interfaces that connect to INMOS Links.

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