Opensparc&Linux?DIY A Computer System?
Hehe, I have a dream .One day ,downloads the sof file of opensparc system into an FPGA board, downloads the zImage of Linux into the memory of the FPGA board,then it tells:Hello ,Opensparc&Linux.......
In the past 1year, I tried to understand the kernel of Linux.
And now, i am interested in the low level design of a CPU .I am trying to read the verilog code of opensparc.
In my opinion,to build a computer system based on the open source ware(hardware such as opensparc,software as linux)will be funny and challengable ,although it will be rough,it is totally DIY.
I am not clear if it will be realizable.
By the way, in the coming 1 year , I will read the verilog code of opensaprc,finally this will be my graduate project. Is it proper if i take it as my graduate project ? Any advice?Thanks!
[837 byte] By [
openidea] at [2007-11-26 9:02:51]
# 1
I have a dream ... one day, download[ing] the sof file of opensparc system into an FPGA board, download[ing] the Image of Linux into the memory of the FPGA board, then it tells: "Hello ,Opensparc&Linux".....
Yes, you can do that.
Linux (kernel.org) now contains support for UltraSPARC T1 (which is the same as OpenSPARC T1).The Ubuntu Linux port fully supports UltraSPARC T1 (in the form of Sun T1000 and T2000 systems). Ports of FreeBSD and I think OpenBSD are also underway.And of course, OpenSolaris fully supports it!All are dowloadable under open source licenses.
In my opinion, to build a computer system based on the open source ware (hardware such as opensparc, software as linux) will be funny and challengable, although ... it is totally DIY. I am not clear if it will be realizable.
It is definitely possible. The only limitation is that with the size of current FPGAs, the 8-core, 32-thread OpenSPARC T1 design might need to be trimmed down to fit in an FPGA. You could certainly fit a 1-core OpenSPARC design into an FPGA today. Possibly 2 or 4 cores could fit into newer, larger FPGAs in a year or so.See the link under "FPGA" on page http://opensparc.sunsource.net/nonav/projects/index.html for the OpenSPARC Community project dedicated to OpenSPARC on FPGAs. You might want to participate in that project -- when a community works on a project, it's not totally "DIY" anymore!
Note that the 6-university RAMP project (http://ramp.eecs.berkeley.edu/) plans to download processor designs such as OpenSPARC into FPGAs and run full-blown OSs (Linux, OpenSolaris, etc) and applications on them .
By the way, in the coming 1 year , I will read the verilog code of opensaprc,finally this will be my graduate project. Is it proper if i take it as my graduate project ? Any advice?
This question was asked in another thread (http://forum.sun.com/jive/thread.jspa?forumID=287&threadID=100158).The response was "yes, go for it!".Using OpenSPARC in a graduate project is a great idea. There is a lot of interest in OpenSPARC at universities, at the graduate and upper-undergraduate levels.It's "open", available for use in both academic and commercial applications.
