[Oberon] Astrobe for FPGA RISC5 Oberon

[Chris Burrows]

We have now got the core OS modules of Project Oberon (Kernel, FileSystem,
SD Card, RS232, module loader, command processor and System commands)
running on a Pipistrello Spartan 6 LX45 board without *any* external SRAM by
using the on-chip BRAM. Only 27% of the available BRAM is used - that leaves
plenty for the typical embedded applications that Astrobe is used to
develop. For more information and screenshot see:

http://www.astrobe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=469

Regards,
Chris

Chris Burrows
CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: skulski at pas.rochester.edu [mailto:skulski at pas.rochester.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, 25 July 2015 1:06 PM
> To: chris at cfbsoftware.com; ETH Oberon and related systems
> Subject: Re: [Oberon] Astrobe for FPGA RISC5 Oberon
> 
> Chris:
> 
>   this is great. I am convinced that Project Oberon makes a lot of
> sense in the embedded space. Your effort is a big step in this
> direction.
> 
> FYI, we are using an embedded version of Project Oberon in the FPGA.
> Our approach was kinda brute force, but it worked. We used only one
> MODULE* (note the star!) and we put all the code right there. The
> MODULE* was originally meant as a bootloader. However, there is
> really no reason why the bootloader should stay a bootloader. So we
> made a utility module out of it. It worked as expected. The drawback
> was that we lost the Oberon safety net because the MODULE* is
> compiled like a SYSTEM. It was not a showstopper in our case. Another
> drawback was loss of the modular structure of the language because
> there can be only one MODULE* in the system.
> 
> Your approach looks much better to me. I think that Astrobe can turn
> RISC5 into a super-Picoblaze. When finished it will certainly deserve
> an article in the Xilinx online magazine. It will probably make it
> easier to port Oberon System to Altera as well.
> 
> Regards,
> Wojtek
> 
> 
> 
> > I am currently developing a version of the Astrobe IDE which hosts
> the
> > Project Oberon FPGA RISC5 compiler on Windows.
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Chris Burrows
> > CFB Software