MicroBlaze Processor

• Buy the Embedded Development HW/SW Kit – Spartan®-3A DSP S3D1800A MicroBlaze™ Processor Edition
• Download the MicroBlaze Processor Memory Management Unit reference design with Embedded Linux
• Register and attend Free Webcast: "Achieve Breakthrough Embedded Performance with the New PowerPC® Processing Block Architecture"

The flexible 32-bit MicroBlaze soft processor can be implemented on any low-cost Spartan-3 or high performance Virtex®-5 FPGA device without any royalties. Xilinx Embedded Development Kit (EDK) includes the MicroBlaze processor along with a comprehensive set of peripheral IP needed for microcontroller applications in a wide range of applications in automotive, ISM and communications markets and the Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS) tool suite to put together custom embedded processing systems in just a few minutes.

Figure 1

MicroBlaze Embedded System

Why Use MicroBlaze Soft Processors?

A flexible system architecture enables you to effectively achieve four product goals:

• Reduce overall product cost
• Achieve performance targets
• Eliminate risk of obsolescence
• Use industry-standard software development frameworks for productivity

Reduce Overall Product Cost

By integrating one or more MicroBlaze processors along with the right mix or peripherals on an FPGA, you can reduce component count as well as board design complexity, reducing overall product cost.

• See MicroBlaze processor architecture.
• See MicroBlaze processor FPU.

Achieve Performance Targets

By customizing the system architecture with the right mix of point-to-point and shared peripheral connections, optimal external memory selection and offloading critical functionality to coprocessors, you can efficiently throttle overall system performance to achieve your application performance requirements.

• See MicroBlaze processor performance advantages.

Eliminate Risk of Obsolescence

Using a soft system architecture with MicroBlaze enables you to easily migrate to future FPGAs for either product upgrades or additions to your product family, essentially future proofing your design.

Use Industry Standard Software Development Frameworks for Productivity

Using Eclipse-based software development IDEs for MicroBlaze processors from Xilinx and Ecosystem Third Party solutions and popular Embedded OS such as full Linux 2.6, you can realize high levels of software productivity. Additionally, please visit our new Software Trace providers Computex and Lauterbach.

• Learn more about Embedded Ecosystem Third Party solutions and RTOS for MicroBlaze processors.