Gecko3 - CCC Event Weblog

Abstract
The goal of this diploma thesis was to develop the required software for the Gecko3 Board.
The Gecko is a development system based on an FPGA for system-on-chip, VLSI designs
and educational purpose. The Gecko2 was developed in 2001. Meanwhile the requirements
have risen and new ideas indicate that it is time for a new generation. The new generation
includes a wider concept then the old one. It is now a multi-module system with great flexibility,
containing a new FPGA board, the Gecko3, and a fast ARM based processor board
called Colibri. This concept fulfills the requirements for a scalable system from a simple
educational system, in combination with a robotic module the so called eBot, to high speed
systems for image-processing, telecommunication and signal-processing applications.
The actually planed features for the Gecko3 board include:
• FPGA with 1.5 Mio. gates
• USB 2.0 interface
• Enough RAM and Flash to support Linux
• Ethernet interface
• Small, as size range of a credit card
• Compatible with IP-Cores included in the Xilinx EDK and from Opencores.org
Our work was divided into different parts of software development. One part was the
Microcontroller software for the Cypress EZ-USB FX2 chip is implemented in C to communicate
with the FPGA at high datarates, to configure the FPGA direct from the host PC or
from the on board serial flash memory and to store FPGA configurations and firmware. We
also designed hardware cores in VHDL to test the communication with the FPGA and show
how the handshaking between the EZ-USB FX2 and the FPGA works. Another part was the
development of the host PC software to access all functions of the Gecko Board. The goal
was to write a multiplattform software which runs on Windows and Linux and enables a fast
and intuitive way for users to use the Gecko Board and implement their specific application
software.
The Gecko3 project is not finished yet, but our diploma thesis is an other big step for its
realisation.
Project Report
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