Sneak Peek – Build Arduino-Compatible SOCs With New Schematic Editor

Today we wanted to give you a sneak peek at a new SOC (System On Chip) schematic editor for Papilio that we are working on.  The editor is a drag and drop system that makes it easy (even for beginners) to draw schematics even without necessarily having VHDL experience.  Jack says,

What we need is a bridge that allows people to pick up a Papilio and build their custom designs without learning a line of VHDL. Then as they become comfortable with all of the concepts they can start tackling VHDL when they need it.

Here are the goals for the Papilio SOC system:

• Provide schematic symbols for the ZPUino, AVR8, and any future Soft Processors we want to include.
• Create a library of Wishbone peripherals such as VGA controllers, Stepper controllers, Delta-Sigma DACs, UARTs, etc.
• Write Arduino libraries to support those Wishbone peripherals
• Write documentation for the Wishbone cores and the supporting libraries.

A new user with zero experience would be able to drag and drop a ZPUino symbol onto the schematic editor and then drag and drop whatever peripherals they need onto the wishbone slots. Next they connect the external I/O pins, update the ucf file, and they are ready to synthesize their custom design! Need two UARTs? Just drag and drop two uarts into the wishbone slots… Next they would fire up the Arduino IDE and in the define section they would add the library they need and specify what wishbone slot that library should communicate with. Voila! A custom Arduino compatible system that anyone of any skill level can design and use!

Please note that this is a work in progress, and we’ll spill more details as they become available. Take a look at the resource list below if you’d like to mess with the editor, and please throw in your comments or suggestions in the comments section.  Any and all feedback is appreciated!

• Source code on GitHub
• Source code (direct download)
• More info (Jack’s original forum post)

(via the forums)