flicky_18
asked on
FPGA vs Microcontroller
Hi,
My question are
1. what is a microcontroller, is it an ASIC or FPGA or other type?
2. when should the project use a microcontroller, or when should it uses FPGA? Can you provide a good example of the project. The project that comes to my mind are:
a. A pong game using LCD interface and push buttons.
b. A stepper motor controller that will control 2-3 motors
c. A simple version of Atari game console
d. An oscilloscope
e. A project that involve image processing from camera input
At first I thought that from a hobbiest, that they will make it in microcontroller but in industry they will do it using FPGA. But after further thought, since the cost of FPGA is more that a simple microcontroller, this is not making sense.
Thank you,
Flicky
My question are
1. what is a microcontroller, is it an ASIC or FPGA or other type?
2. when should the project use a microcontroller, or when should it uses FPGA? Can you provide a good example of the project. The project that comes to my mind are:
a. A pong game using LCD interface and push buttons.
b. A stepper motor controller that will control 2-3 motors
c. A simple version of Atari game console
d. An oscilloscope
e. A project that involve image processing from camera input
At first I thought that from a hobbiest, that they will make it in microcontroller but in industry they will do it using FPGA. But after further thought, since the cost of FPGA is more that a simple microcontroller, this is not making sense.
Thank you,
Flicky
SOLUTION
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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Wow thanks for the clarification. Just one things still bother me.
Facts:
1. microcontroller is a programmable IC. (We can say this general purpose IC then)
2. Asic is application specific IC
what makes microcontroller slower compared to asic ?
Flicky
Facts:
1. microcontroller is a programmable IC. (We can say this general purpose IC then)
2. Asic is application specific IC
what makes microcontroller slower compared to asic ?
Flicky
SOLUTION
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A microcontroller executes a program, one step at a time.
A PIC with a 40 MHz clock takes four clock cycles per instruction.
So you can get can 8-bit additions per microsecond.
You program a CPLD, FPGA, or ASIC once by configuring connections between logic elements.
You wind up with dedicated logic. You could implement a hundred parallel adders if you needed to.
The clocks are faster, typically 100 to 300 MHz.
If your are careful you can get an 8-bit addition every clock cycle.
Two factors of 100 give you 10,000 times the performance.
A PIC with a 40 MHz clock takes four clock cycles per instruction.
So you can get can 8-bit additions per microsecond.
You program a CPLD, FPGA, or ASIC once by configuring connections between logic elements.
You wind up with dedicated logic. You could implement a hundred parallel adders if you needed to.
The clocks are faster, typically 100 to 300 MHz.
If your are careful you can get an 8-bit addition every clock cycle.
Two factors of 100 give you 10,000 times the performance.
ASKER
Thank you all for answering my question.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21279573/Xilinx-CPLD-FPGA.html
I use Atmel CPLD's and PIC microcontrollers a lot.
Atmel AVR microcontrollers are probably better than PIC's but they aren't what I started with.
Atmel is great company for hobbiests.
http://www.atmel.com/products/product_selector.asp