The Peripheral Control Project

What

• Eliminate microcontrolers using an FPGA

Why

• Lower development costs
  • No uC firmware
  • No need to learn FPGAs, Verilog, tool chains, or drivers
  • Schematic is FPGA circuit + Pmods (could be automated)
• Lower BOM costs
  • Just one FPGA with lots of IO and no real-time constraints
  • Low end FPGA, ~4000 LUTs, no LVDS needed
  • No need for FPGA flash, download from Linux at boot
• Off-the-Shelf
  • Off the shelf FPGA dev boards
  • Off the shelf Pmod modules (200+)
  • Off the shelf Wishbone peripheral per Pmod
  • Off the shelf Linux interface
  • Off the shelf Linux drivers/API
  • Off the shelf schematics
• Traditional Linux real-time control
  • microcontroller, usually more than one
  • custom hardware required
  • custom uC software required
  • custom Linux interface required
  • custom Linux API required

HOW

Replace your uC with an FPGA:

• Buy an FPGA dev card with Pmod connectors
• Select Pmod cards for your application
• Visit https://demandperipherals.com/build to select peripherals
  • Portal backend software links all peripherals in FPGA image
    Peripheral list -> Makefile -> binary. (No IDE needed)
  • Receives FPGA binary in email
• Install pcdaemon to get Linux API to peripherals
• Possible to get an "API complete" system in an hour