Cortex A5 processor compatibility with FPGA.........

Is cortex A5/A7 processor supports FPGA device, i know Cortex M series developed for FPGA implement ion.
if Cortex A5/A7 supports FPGA means ,what is the maximum achievable frequency?

Which FPGA?
Softcore or hard-core?
Have you searched yourself the websites of major FPGA vendors for ARM core support?
You must frame more specific questions!

velu.plg said:

Is cortex A5/A7 processor supports FPGA device, i know Cortex M series developed for FPGA implement ion.
if Cortex A5/A7 supports FPGA means ,what is the maximum achievable frequency?

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Which one are you asking?. FPGA Prototyping? or MPSoCs?.

It is ARM CortexM1 that is purely optimized for FPGA. I'm working on Cortex M3 running on FPGA and trust me, crossing 60 MHz on Stratix high end FPGA is really quiet harder. If you are asking about hard IP like Zynq or the new Stratix-10, then it should be 1GHz and above.

But I remember my one of the Zynq work had ARM Cortex A9 was capable of clocking 600MHz.

FPGA INFO :
version :Virtrex 7 ;
device ID : XC7V2000T
Is Cortex A7 support the above FPGA family?

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FPGA INFO :
version :Virtrex 7 ;
device ID : XC7V2000T
Is Cortex A7 support the above FPGA family?

velu.plg said:

FPGA INFO :
version :Virtrex 7 ;
device ID : XC7V2000T
Is Cortex A7 support the above FPGA family?

- - - Updated - - -

FPGA INFO :
version :Virtrex 7 ;
device ID : XC7V2000T
Is Cortex A7 support the above FPGA family?

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What do you mean by "support"? Do you mean can I take a soft core of an A7 and implement it in a Virtex 7? Don't expect anything close to the typical ASIC clock frequencies. If you mean is there a hard core A7 version of a Virtex 7 part...then no there are no Arm support in a Virtex 7.

You really need to improve your questions they are always vague and open ended.

If you are asking A7 will fit into FPGA for SoC prototyping, Not sure if it will. However you should be able to synthesis the ARM core in your FPGA using tools like Synplify Pro or Premier. Since M3 doesn't have FPU or DSP extensions it may not have occupied much as these are the major ones to occupy the resource. Hope you are asking for single core


Could you mention your application a bit elaborate?. Are you trying to do a ASIC prototyping on FPGA? or do you want to use prebuilt ARM core in FPGA like those on Arria or Zynq devices?.

ads-ee said:

What do you mean by "support"? Do you mean can I take a soft core of an A7 and implement it in a Virtex 7? Don't expect anything close to the typical ASIC clock frequencies. If you mean is there a hard core A7 version of a Virtex 7 part...then no there are no Arm support in a Virtex 7.

You really need to improve your questions they are always vague and open ended.

Click to expand...

yes am expecting below answers,
Can I take a soft core of an A7 and implement it in a Virtex 7? and Maximum achievable clock frequency in XC7V2000T part? Is cortexA7 soft core processor optimized for Virtex 7 device architecture, otherwise which is specific for ASIC architecture.

Am going to buy a cortexA7 processor, but which should support both ASIC& FPGA architecture. So, while buying the processor we need raise any quires regards this dependency?

There is no V7 device available with hard cored CortexA7 processor?

velu.plg said:

yes am expecting below answers,
Can I take a soft core of an A7 and implement it in a Virtex 7? and Maximum achievable clock frequency in XC7V2000T part? Is cortexA7 soft core processor optimized for Virtex 7 device architecture, otherwise which is specific for ASIC architecture.

Am going to buy a cortexA7 processor, but which should support both ASIC& FPGA architecture. So, while buying the processor we need raise any quires regards this dependency?

There is no V7 device available with hard cored CortexA7 processor?

Click to expand...

Can I take a soft core of an A7 and implement it in a Virtex 7?

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-- Yes, anything that is VHDL/VERILOG/SYS.VERILOG can go inside FPGA, provided you use proper synthesis tools. But there are things like POR, DELAY CELLS, ANALOG IPs in the SoC will not go into FPGA. However, for ARM only design, you will not find these.

Maximum achievable clock frequency in XC7V2000T part?. Is cortexA7 soft core processor optimized for Virtex 7 device architecture, otherwise which is specific for ASIC architecture.

Click to expand...

-- As I said, it will be well below 100MHz and No, A7 is not optimized for FPGA architecture. It is Cortex M1 which is optimized for FPGA. Not that other cores will not be compatible, but you will get very least amount of operating frequency even for a high end FPGA like Virtex-7

Am going to buy a cortexA7 processor, but which should support both ASIC& FPGA architecture. So, while buying the processor we need raise any quires regards this dependenc

Click to expand...

Again, As far as I know, Cortex A7 is not available in flavors (for FPGA, ASIC, etc). And that is one reason why companies use multi-million gate FPGA Arrays (Typically 10s and 20s) to emulate their multi-core SoCs. Plus, the ARM license costs are so huge. They charge license fees and royalty fees as well. The royalty charges are 1-2% of the cost per chip. Hence mass producing companies would buy them only if they are emulating an SoC/ASIC on FPGA. If that is not your purpose, this approach is not good. You can buy built-in ARM cores in FPGA to do your embedded apps which typically cost you ~10-15K USD per FPGA setup.

The A series of is not designed for use in an FPGA, end of discussion. ARM created the M series for such applications.

If you decide that is what you have to use then don't expect even close to the 100 MHz mentioned by xtcx. Just a guess, but you will probably be lucky to see 40 MHz.

Maximum achievable clock frequency in XC7V2000T part if i use Cortex R4 processor without negative slack?

The R series is also NOT designed for FPGAs.

ONLY THE M SERIES IS DESIGNED FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN AN FPGA!

Is that clear enough!

If you need A or R with high clock frequencies then design an ASIC and ask your question there and not in the FPGA section of the forum. It is highly unlikely you will get any answer based on anything besides conjecture in this section because the number of engineers that have worked on FPGA emulation of ASICs is not huge and the number of those specific emulation engineers that did a job where they used an A or R series Cortex will be even smaller and then those that have done both being members of edaboard probably goes to 0 total people.

ONLY THE M SERIES IS DESIGNED FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN AN FPGA!

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From the ARM processors, I think only the Cortex M1 is designed to be implemented as an FPGA soft-core.
I don't know of any commercially available Cortex M3 , M4 or M7 devices intended for soft FPGA implementation.

shaiko said:

From the ARM processors, I think only the Cortex M1 is designed to be implemented as an FPGA soft-core.
I don't know of any commercially available Cortex M3 , M4 or M7 devices intended for soft FPGA implementation.

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Don't know if that is the case or not, but I can definitely believe it as I'm sure the performance of an FPGA fabric isn't nearly as good as an ASIC by any metric. I know some of those M series devices can be quite big.

So perhaps my (shouting) statement should have been...

ONLY THE M1 IS DESIGNED FOR IMPLEMENTATION IN AN FPGA!

" As I said, it will be well below 100MHz and No, A7 is not optimized for FPGA architecture. It is Cortex M1 which is optimized for FPGA. Not that other cores will not be compatible, but you will get very least amount of operating frequency even for a high end FPGA like Virtex-7"

Maximum achievable clock frequency in XC7V2000T part if i use Cortex R4 processor without negative slack ?
Because currently we have Cortex R4 processor.We are going to upgrade our processor into CortexA7.
We use same processor type in ASIC design. We are checking are design with the help of FPGA.

velu.plg said:

We use same processor type in ASIC design. We are checking are design with the help of FPGA.

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Arrghhh!! You could have pointed out 14 posts ago that you are doing ASIC emulation.

Time to update the ignore list.

ads-ee said:

Arrghhh!! You could have pointed out 14 posts ago that you are doing ASIC emulation.

Time to update the ignore list.

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Yes because i need that clarification itself? With the help of R4 processor we can't achieve 240MHz frequency. For 120Mhz itself we got -1.452ns negative slack[using cortex R4 processor]. If we upgrade our processor[Cortex A7] means shall we rectify this timing issues?

If anyone have experience regards above process please give suggestion.