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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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16 years ago

Details about the Avalon Bus

Greetings!

I just want to ask what exactly is the Avalon Bus for? What is it and how is it different from I2C bus interface? I am going to implement an SD controller and the DE2 board implements it on SPI. However, some designs says they make use of Avalon, does this mean that it doesn't make use of Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)?

Is Avalon its own bus protocol that is different from the other Bus interfaces?

Thanks!

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    16 years ago

    The Avalon Bus is a framework interface that is the foundation of the SOPC builder tool.

    http://www.altera.com/literature/manual/mnl_avalon_spec.pdf

    The Avalon Bus is it's own protocol and it is a parallel interface as opposed to SPI and I2C which are serial in nature.

    The reason the Avalon interface is used on the DE2 board for the SPI controller is to allow the module to be instantiated in an SOPC builder project. It is SPI on one side and Avalon on the other.