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LEON3 SPARC processor

The LEON3 is a synthesisable VHDL model of a 32-bit processor compliant with the SPARC V8 architecture. The model is highly configurable, and particularly suitable for system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs. The full source code is available under the GNU GPL license, allowing free and unlimited use for research and education. LEON3 is also available under a low-cost commercial license, allowing it to be used in any commercial application to a fraction of the cost of comparable IP cores.

This project explains how a LEON3 processor can be implemented on a ZTEX Modules:

Module FPGA CPU cores MMU FPU Utilization Linux
1.11c LX25 1 no no 54% no
1.11c LX25 1 yes yes 88% yes
1.15b LX75 2 yes yes 53% yes, SMP

Download the fresh Source

Synthesize the design

The design uses the Xilinx MIG memory interface with an AHB-2.0 interface. The MIG source code cannot be distributed due to the prohibitive Xilinx license, so the MIG must be re-generated with coregen before simulation and synthesis can be done.

To generate the MIG do as follows:

make mig

This will ONLY work with ISE-13 installed, and the XILINX variable properly set in the shell. To synthesize the design, do

make ise

EZ-USB FX2 Firmware

No special firmware is required in order to run LEON3. The standalone firmware from the ZTEX SDK can be used as dummy firmware and to allow Bitstream uploading via USB.

Load bitstream

The bitstream can be uploaded via USB using FWLoader or via JTAG using Xilinx Impact.

Connect serial console

In order to verify the functionality of the LEON3 a serial adapter cable need to be connected to the FPGA Board.

By default serial port has a baud rate 38400

By default, the serial port is connected to the following pins:

Name FPGA ball Pin of the FPGA Board Pin at the Experimental board
TX C13 A13 A13
RX A14 A12 A12

If other pins are preferred, lines around line 9 need to be changed.

DSU - Debug Support Unit

To simplify debugging on target hardware, the LEON3 processor implements a debug mode during which the pipeline is idle and the processor is controlled through a special debug interface. The LEON3 Debug Support Unit (DSU) is used to control the processor during debug mode.

By default, the DSU serial port is connected to the following pins:

Name FPGA ball Pin of the FPGA Board Pin at the Experimental board
TX E11 A15 A15
RX D12 A14 A14

You can connect DSU via JTAG also

GRMON - Debug Monitor for LEON systems

GRMON is a general debug monitor for the LEON processor, and for SOC designs based on the GRLIB IP library. Download and unpack from GRMON page evaluation version for Linux and Windows

Start gromon with uart or jtag (USB or LPT):

  • -uart /dev/ttyUSB0 -baud 460800
  • -xilusb
  • -jtag

Output from GRMON is:

 GRMON LEON debug monitor v1.1.49 evaluation version

 Copyright (C) 2004-2011 Aeroflex Gaisler - all rights reserved.
 For latest updates, go to http://www.gaisler.com/
 Comments or bug-reports to support@gaisler.com

 This evaluation version will expire on 20/1/2012
 using port /dev/ttyUSB0 @ 460800 baud

 Device ID: : 0x601
 GRLIB build version: 4108

 initialising ............
 detected frequency:  74 MHz

 Component                            Vendor
 LEON3 SPARC V8 Processor             Gaisler Research
 AHB Debug UART                       Gaisler Research
 AHB Debug JTAG TAP                   Gaisler Research
 AHB/APB Bridge                       Gaisler Research
 LEON3 Debug Support Unit             Gaisler Research
 AHB static ram                       Gaisler Research
 Xilinx MIG DDR2 controller           Gaisler Research
 AHB ROM                              Gaisler Research
 Generic APB UART                     Gaisler Research
 Multi-processor Interrupt Ctrl       Gaisler Research
 Modular Timer Unit                   Gaisler Research
 General purpose I/O port             Gaisler Research
 
 Use command 'info sys' to print a detailed report of attached cores
 
grlib> info sys
00.01:003   Gaisler Research  LEON3 SPARC V8 Processor (ver 0x0)
             ahb master 0
01.01:007   Gaisler Research  AHB Debug UART (ver 0x0)
             ahb master 1
             apb: 80000700 - 80000800
             baud rate 460800, ahb frequency 74.00
02.01:01c   Gaisler Research  AHB Debug JTAG TAP (ver 0x1)
             ahb master 2
01.01:006   Gaisler Research  AHB/APB Bridge (ver 0x0)
             ahb: 80000000 - 80100000
02.01:004   Gaisler Research  LEON3 Debug Support Unit (ver 0x1)
             ahb: 90000000 - a0000000
             stack pointer 0x43fffff0
             CPU#0 win 8, V8 mul/div, srmmu, lddel 2, GRFPU-lite
                   icache 1 * 4 kbyte, 32 byte/line 
                   dcache 1 * 4 kbyte, 32 byte/line 
03.01:00e   Gaisler Research  AHB static ram (ver 0xc)
             ahb: a0000000 - a0100000
             4 kbyte AHB ram @ 0xa0000000
04.01:06b   Gaisler Research  Xilinx MIG DDR2 controller (ver 0x0)
             ahb: 40000000 - 44000000
             apb: 80000500 - 80000600
             DDR2: 64 Mbyte
06.01:01b   Gaisler Research  AHB ROM (ver 0x0)
             ahb: 00000000 - 00100000
01.01:00c   Gaisler Research  Generic APB UART (ver 0x1)
             irq 2
             apb: 80000100 - 80000200
             baud rate 38381
02.01:00d   Gaisler Research  Multi-processor Interrupt Ctrl (ver 0x3)
             apb: 80000200 - 80000300
03.01:011   Gaisler Research  Modular Timer Unit (ver 0x0)
             irq 8
             apb: 80000300 - 80000400
             8-bit scaler, 2 * 32-bit timers, divisor 74
0b.01:01a   Gaisler Research  General purpose I/O port (ver 0x1)
             apb: 80000b00 - 80000c00
grlib> 

Run stanalone samples

Load precompiled Dhrystone test by GRMON

grlib> lo ../samples/dhry.exe
section: .text at 0x40000000, size 49616 bytes
section: .data at 0x4000c1d0, size 2408 bytes
total size: 52024 bytes (362.3 kbit/s)
read 251 symbols
entry point: 0x40000000
grlib> run

Program exited normally.
grlib>

Serial console out is:

Execution starts, 400000 runs through Dhrystone
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:    9.3
Dhrystones per Second:                      107142.9

Dhrystones MIPS      :                        61.0

How build and run other samples

Run Linux

Configure design

You can change design configuration of LEON3 through configuration utility. From dir designs/leon3-ztex-ufm-xc6slx25 do:

 make xconfig

Clock frequency

By default LEON3 clock is 72Mhz. But it may be more up to 90MHz. You can change the frequency of LEON3 through configuration utility. Select «Clock generation» and change:

  • Clock multiplication factor 15
  • Clock division factor 8

To note, the time of synthesis (for 90Мгц) about 2.5-3 hours!

Save area

To save area, you can disable the MMU, FPU

Rebuild design

Press «Main Menu» and «Save and Exit». Rebuild design:

make clean
make scripts
make ise

Prebuild bit streams

LEON3 V8 with MMU and FPU:

 
en/projects/leon3.txt · Last modified: 2012/02/09 15:35 by stefan
 
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