Thanks for Feedback,<br><br>I have been talked with some people, we (I, Felipe and Leonardo) know a group (that worked with us) that did a MPEG decoder in hardware at Brazil and they have been helped us with some tips in others list. Also, I had a chat with my professor and now I think it is more clear about LEON and SDRAM controller.
<br><br>First, I agree with you, the priority should be the LEON. How Ralph said, until this is done, no one else can play with the code.<br><br>LEON3<br>figure 1: <a href="http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/leon3.JPG">
http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/leon3.JPG</a><br><br>It is a excellent nonproprietay processor, very flexible and has a lot of components that can be pluged (like Memory controller, jTag, AMBA).<br><br>The steps would be:
<br><br>- To find a configuration that be able to decode the Theora.<br>- Synthesis of LEON3<br>- To compile only de initial part of Theora for LEON and to run this inside of the LEON.<br>- To change the handshake of Theora Hardware of AVALON to AMBA protocol.
<br>- Integrate the processor and theora hardware<br><br>In think the hard part would be to debug this, construct a testbench to test this. To learn the LEON3 features/configuration and the protocols would be dificult too.
<br><br>SDRAM Controller and FlashCard<br>Yes. To do it in Hardware would be much complicate, because there are many constrains and the SDRAM is very rigid with timing. For this, I would need to have a good study of the datasheet before to start the developing.
<br><br>In the other list we had the ideia of work with a Flash Card, but It is very slow. The Flash card would be nice to store the Videos encoded.<br><br>LEON3/Memory Controller<br><br>How you can see in figure 1, the LEON3 has a Memory Controller of SDRAM.
<br>The LEON will use this to execute the functions of the intial decoding.<br>figure 2: <a href="http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/fig2.JPG">http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/fig2.JPG</a><br><br>Ok, then we can use this SDRAM memory controller to buffer of the Theora Hardware?
<br>Something like this:<br>figure 3: <a href="http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/fig3.JPG">http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/fig3.JPG</a><br><br>This answer I still don't, because it's depende of the AMBA, frequecie of operation and data throuput. AMBA is a little slow, I think it will not get to answer the LEON and Theora Hardware requests in time. But It is could be tested.
<br><br>If it is not ok, the alternative would be copy the memory controller to use with the SRAM<br>figure 4: <a href="http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/fig4.JPG">http://www.students.ic.unicamp.br/~ra031198/fig4.JPG
</a><br><br><br>LEON3/VGA controller<br>Beyond this, LEON3 has a VGA controller, but I don't know if it would be necessary to plug with Theora Hardware. But I think that could happen the same problem of the SDRAM, It could overload the AMBA. And then, I think It should be unpluged of AMBA and to plug directly with the Theora Hardware.
<br>The group that we know did a Video Controller (for MPEG) in hardware. It seems to be not much dificult to do, maybe it is more interesting to Leonardo to do one.<br><br><br><br>What do you think?<br><br>André Costa<br>
<br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/9/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Timothy B. Terriberry</b> <<a href="mailto:tterribe@vt.edu">tterribe@vt.edu</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
>> Derf, what do you think?<br><br>I don't know enough about the complexity implementing an SDRAM<br>controller to say whether it should be one of the "primary goals" or a<br>"secondary goal, time permitting". However, I think it would be nice to
<br>shoot for completing integration with Leon by the midterm date (the week<br>of July 9; in approximately two months). Then you will have the entire<br>second half of the project to focus on the SDRAM controller. That may
<br>not be enough to finish it if it is really as complex as last year's<br>entire GSoC project, but I would think you could make some good<br>progress. When you talk to your professor tomorrow, he may be able to<br>give you a better idea whether or not this is reasonable.
<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>André Costa<br>Gerente Técnico<br>Projeto BrazilIP<br>LSC IC-UNICAMP <br><br>Cel: + 55 13 9201 1870<br><a href="http://www.brazilip.org.br/">http://www.brazilip.org.br/
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