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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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18 years ago

multi-tasking for FPGA or PLD

Hi,

I am new to FPGA and PLD, and have the following questions.

1) Can FPGA or PLD do multi-tasking?

2) I am currently using Microchip PIC micro-controller, and have heard that one can use FPGA to expand the I/O of the PIC micro-controller? Has anyone in this forum done this before? If yes, ok to share on how to do it?

Thanks & Regards

1 Reply

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

    1. I would say, you get something better than multi-tasking: Full parallel execution of all design modules. Only NIOS II soft processors behave as known from other processors, executing tasks sequentially.

    2. You can use it as programmable, intelligent uC peripheral, IO-coprocessor, whatever you like. You have to select an appropriate interface, e.g. SPI, I2C, parallel, to exchange data or commands between processor and FPGA and create the interface logic at the FPGA side.