Continue to Site

Welcome to EDAboard.com

Welcome to our site! EDAboard.com is an international Electronics Discussion Forum focused on EDA software, circuits, schematics, books, theory, papers, asic, pld, 8051, DSP, Network, RF, Analog Design, PCB, Service Manuals... and a whole lot more! To participate you need to register. Registration is free. Click here to register now.

[SOLVED] What are Soft Processors? is 8085 a soft processor?

Status
Not open for further replies.

savan

Junior Member level 3
Junior Member level 3
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
25
Helped
1
Reputation
2
Reaction score
0
Trophy points
1,281
Activity points
1,445
What are Soft Processors?
is 8085 a soft processor?
Can anybody enlighten me about this?

Thanks!
 

HI,
8085 is not a Soft Processor. It is a Hard Core CPU. Infact the Soft Core CPUs are FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). The logic in here is controlled by software command hence changing the Gate Arrays according to the circuit requirement (ultimately performing a CPU withing the arrays). Where as the Hard core CPUs are burnt on the chip as permanent gate circuitry. (just a brief description)
 
  • Like
Reactions: savan

    savan

    Points: 2
    Helpful Answer Positive Rating
HI,
8085 is not a Soft Processor. It is a Hard Core CPU. Infact the Soft Core CPUs are FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). The logic in here is controlled by software command hence changing the Gate Arrays according to the circuit requirement (ultimately performing a CPU withing the arrays). Where as the Hard core CPUs are burnt on the chip as permanent gate circuitry. (just a brief description)
Thanks it helped!
I am wondering if I have Spartan-6 FPGA board then can I program it for any processor(like 8085 and 8086) or there are limitation that 'ONLY SOFT PROCESSORS' can be implemented on it!
 

What are Soft Processors?
is 8085 a soft processor?
Can anybody enlighten me about this?

Thanks!

A soft processor is not a type of processor, it a type of processor implementation.

A soft processor describes a processor when it is implemented in a reprogrammable logic chip (almost always an FPGA or CPLD).

If you put the same processor into an ASIC or bought it as a commercial chip, it is a hard processor. But this term 'hard processor' didn't exist and wasn't needed until programmable logic came along and made soft processors possible for the masses. We might as well start calling other circuits in the FPGA soft, like a 'soft DMA controller' or 'soft SDRAM controller', everything in an FPGA/CPLD is in the same bracket really.

So any CPU (8085, Z80, 68000) can have a soft implementation of itself for an FPGA/CPLD, if you've got a large enough etc such device to accomodate it. The soft/hard bit is nothing to do with the processor's architecture or programming model - an 8085 is still just an 8085.

Have a look on opencores.org, loads of them on there.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FvM and savan

    savan

    Points: 2
    Helpful Answer Positive Rating

    FvM

    Points: 2
    Helpful Answer Positive Rating
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Part and Inventory Search

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top