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FPGA Operating system

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adwnis123

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What are the difficulties of producing an operating system for a FPGA? Because from the few I have heard there is nothing made about that, or it can be as a PhD program..
 

adwnis123 said:
What are the difficulties of producing an operating system for a FPGA? Because from the few I have heard there is nothing made about that, or it can be as a PhD program..
Click to expand...

... the whole question makes no sense as posed, as an OS runs on a processor, not on a programmable fabric.
 
It seems that you lack a basic understanding of what an FPGA actually is...
It's like asking what are the difficulties in an operating system for NAND and NOR gates...

After watching these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfmlsDW3Z4c
You'll immediately see how little sense your question has.
 
There are hybrid parts with CPU+FPGA as well such as the Zinq and its counterparts from Altera.
 

TrickyDicky said:
No
More like NIOS, MicroBlaze, PicoBlaze
Click to expand...

Hello,

PicoBlaze has not enough resources to run OS - especially program ROM (form 1K to 4K words - Picoblaze instruction is 18 bit long) and RAM. Second issue with Picoblaze is lack of working properly C compiler (praktically one can use only Picoblaze assembler) - in contex of runnig OS on it.

Regards

- - - Updated - - -

TrickyDicky said:
No
More like NIOS, MicroBlaze, PicoBlaze
Click to expand...

Hello,

why "No" as far as I know someone can run "Solaris OS" on "OpenSparc" soft-processor.

See project site:

https://www.oracle.com/technetwork/systems/opensparc/index.html

Regards

- - - Updated - - -

TrickyDicky said:
Is there an Echo in here? (look at post #6)
Click to expand...

Sorry - I didn't notice your post when answering.

Regards
 
Last edited:

Can I run Kali linux on an FPGA, or at least program the FPGA to run commands and run thee Kali linux on a hdd? connected to the FPGA?
 

I think you're still not getting it.

An FPGA can 'be' anything. One thing it can be is a full fledged 32-bit processor and a 32-bit processors can run linux.
 

Ok, because I do not have the appropriate knowledge on this, can a Xilinx Spartan 3E be used for this? Should I use other any other FPGA model?

Thank you...
 

adwnis123 said:
Ok, because I do not have the appropriate knowledge on this, can a Xilinx Spartan 3E be used for this? Should I use other any other FPGA model?

Thank you...
Click to expand...

Why do you want to do this on an FPGA. You could probably do far more, much more quickly, with a $30 raspberry pi
 
adwnis123 said:
Because as I know (correct me if I am wrong) FPGAs are far more fast than Raspberies..
Click to expand...

It depends on the FPGA.
The top end FPGAs (with embedded arms or Intel CPUS) will probably run Linux pretty fast. But they will cost you $5000+. And you're not running Linux on the FPGA, you're running it on the embedded Arm/Intel core that is hard IP (Ie. not made of FPGA logic). The Spartan 3E will probably run Linux extremely slowly. with Limited IO. Probbaly no hard storage, and likely no USB.

A Rasberry Pi is $30, and very capable of running linux, with lots of IO options.
 
No, FPGA's can be faster than a processor but usually at a specific or specialized task.

There is a reason FPGA's are comparatively less common than processors and the reason is that they are generally NOT faster or more cost effective than a well specified processor for most tasks.

FPGA's have a role in low volume products, highly parallel and specialized tasks.
 
adwnis123 said:
Can I run Kali linux on an FPGA, or at least program the FPGA to run commands and run thee Kali linux on a hdd? connected to the FPGA?
Click to expand...

Hello,

you can not because Linux for FPGA is almost kernel + basic packages. There aren't repositories with packages from Kali Linux for FPGA and particular SoC (like Zynq of soft-processor).
You have to compile all packages from sources what for time constraints and needed knowledge is impossible to do.

BTW: Linux for FPGA's is very basic OS system for embedded solutions (and writing custom peripherals in HDL languages like VHDL or Verilog).
Regards
 
FlyingDutch said:
Hello,

you can not because Linux for FPGA is almost kernel + basic packages. There aren't repositories with packages from Kali Linux for FPGA and particular SoC (like Zynq of soft-processor).
You have to compile all packages from sources what for time constraints and needed knowledge is impossible to do.

BTW: Linux for FPGA's is very basic OS system for embedded solutions (and writing custom peripherals in HDL languages like VHDL or Verilog).
Regards
Click to expand...

So if I understood correct, it is possible to build a hardware on a FPGA by seeing what specifications does a LINUX OS has...??
 

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