spi

This continues the third part of Math Talk. This page shows a master implementation of the message protocol described earlier.

Messages Exchange with FPGA as Slave

The implementation builds onto the Byte Module code shown earlier. We will start by explaining how to pass multidimensional arrays through ports.

Registers

On Altera, we can the multidimensional arrays available in system verilog HDL

wire [nrRWregs+nrROregs-1:0] [31:0] registers;

The implementation is slightly more complicated on Xilinx, because Verilog 2001 doesn’t allow multidimensional arrays to be used as inputs or outputs. Instead, we work around this by flatten the 2D registers array into two vectors. One for input, and one for the output ports as shown in the code fragments below.

Flatten the 2-dimensional array, registers, into vectors rwRegs1D and roRegs1D genvar nn; wire [31:0] roRegs2D[0:nrROregs-1]; for ( nn = 0; nn < nrRWregs; nn = nn + 1) begin :nnRW assign rwRegs1D[32*nn+31:32*nn] = registers[nn]; // flatten end for ( nn = 0; nn < nrROregs; nn = nn + 1) begin :nnRO assign roRegs2D[nn] = roRegs1D[32*nn+31:32*nn]; // inflate end[/code]

Inflate the vectors, rwRegs1D and roRegs1D, into a 2-dimensional array registers.

wire [0:31] registers[0:nrRWregs+nrROregs-1]; genvar nn; for ( nn = 0; nn < nrRWregs; nn = nn + 1 ) begin :nnRW assign registers[nn] = rwRegs1D[32*nn+31:32*nn]; end for ( nn = 0; nn < nrROregs; nn = nn + 1 ) begin :nnRO assign roRegs1D[32*nn+31:32*nn] = registers[nn+nrRWregs]; end[/code]

Timing

The timing diagram below shows the relation between the different signals at the message level on Xilinx.

The Altera implementation is more optimized, as it needs to run at 200 MHz. The gate level simulation is shown below;

Finite State Machine

This message module converts the bytes into messages and visa versa. The protocol is implemented using a state machine with 4 states:

• Idle (0)
• Transmit status (1), transmits 8-bit status to master
• Transmit register value (2) , transmits a 32-bit register value to the master
• Receive register value (3), receives a 32-bit register value from the master

An additional state-like variable, byteId, is used to keeps track of what byte to transmit or receive.

Sources

The complete project including constraints and test bench is available through

• SPI Slave, main module, spi_msg.sv on Altera (or spi_msg.v on Xilinx)
• SPI Slave, message interface, spi_msg_if.sv on Altera (or spi_msg_if.v on Xilinx)

Verification

To verify the implementation, run the test bench (spi_msg_tb.v) using gate level simulation. This test bench will monitor the communication and report errors when found. In the real world, we connect the Arduino SPI Master that acts just like the test bench.

This article introduced SPI as a protocol and expanded it to exchange messages.

Implements the SPI byte protocol on Arduino to exchange bytes with a FPGA. Written in C for Intel Arduino 101. This page continues the protocol description of the Math Talk series. This short section shows an Arduino implementation of a SPI master. The Arduino can be either an Arduino 101 or an Arduino UNO R3 that has been modified to run on 3.3V as described in the hardware section.

Arduino as Master

The Arduino is blessed with a support library for the serial peripheral interface. This greatly aids the implementation. The code shown below was tested with both types of Arduino. For the slave we used an Altera or Xilinx based FPGA implementation as described on the next page. Refer to the first part of this article for details about the physical connection. In particular, once more, please read the part about 3.3V versus 5V when using an Arduino UNO R3.

Sources

The SPI library makes it very straightforward to implement a SPI master. You can clone this project from:

• SPI Master implementation, arduino-spi_byte.ino

The Arduino sends an alternating pattern of 0xAA and 0x55 to the FPGA. On the FPGA, LED[0] will be on when it receives 0xAA. Consequentially it will blink with 10% duty cycle. The FPGA always returns 0x55, what is displayed on the serial port.

Traces

Logic analyzer traces of the Arduino communicating with the FPGA. We see the SS going active, and the FPGA sending a byte over MISO to the Arduino. The data is sampled on the rising edge of SCLK.

Zoomed out, we see the Arduino receiving three bytes from the FPGA.

Specifies the SPI byte protocol. We use this to exchange bytes between the Arduino microcontroller and a FPGA. This is the third part of Math Talk. In this part we describe the protocol used to transfer bytes between the microcontroller and FPGA.

Bytes Exchange Protocol

With the two devices physically connected, we need a protocol to transfer data. We chose the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), a lightweight protocol to connect one master to one or more slaves.

Master/slave

The SPI bus is controlled by a master device (typically a microcontroller) that orchestrates the bus access. The master generates the control signals and regulates the data flow. The illustration below shows a master with three slaves. The pinout for SCLK, MOSI, MISO and SS can be found on the previous page. The master uses the Slave Select (SS) signal to select the slave.

Parameters

SPI is also a protocol with many degrees of freedom. It is important that the master and slave agree on the voltage levels and maximum clock frequency. The SPI clock polarity (CPOL) and clock phase (CPHA) introduce four more degrees of freedom as shown in the table below.

For this article we assume mode 3, where the clock is high when idle; data is driving following the falling edge of the clock and latched on the rising edge.

Operation

The protocol is easiest explained with shift registers as shown in the illustration below. The master generates the SPI Clock (SCLK) to initiate the information exchange. Data is shifted on one edge of this clock and is sampled on the opposite edge when the data is stable.

In mode 3, at the falling edge of SCLK, both devices drive their most significant bit (b7) on their outgoing data line. On the rising edge, both devices clock in this bit into the least significant bit position (b0). After eight SCLK cycles, the master and slave have exchanged their values and each device processes the data received (e.g. writing it to memory). In case there is more data to be exchanged, the registers are loaded with new data and the process repeats itself. Once all data is transmitted, the master stops the SCLK clock.

Slave select

For a more complete picture, we need to include the effect of the slave select (SS*) signal that is used to address the slave devices.

Slaves may only drive their output (MISO) line when SS* is active, otherwise they should tri-stated the output. The protocol can be broken down into the following steps:

1. The master initiates the communication by activating SS*.
   • The slave responds by starting to drive its MISO output.
   • Meanwhile the master drives its MOSI output.
2. The master makes SCLK low.
   • On this falling edge, the master and slave drive their most significant bit position (b7) on respectively their MOSI and MISO outputs.
3. The master makes SCLK high.
   • On this rising edge, the master and slave clock the input from their respectively MISO and MOSI inputs into the least significant bit position (b0).
4. Go back to step 2. until the least significant bit position (b0) has been sent.
5. When all bits are transmitted, the master deactivates SS*.

Implements the SPI byte protocol on Arduino to exchange bytes with a FPGA. Written in C for Intel Arduino 101. This page continues the protocol description of the Math Talk series. This short section shows an Arduino implementation of a SPI master. The Arduino can be either an Arduino 101 or an Arduino UNO R3 that has been modified to run on 3.3V as described in the hardware section.

Arduino as Master

The Arduino is blessed with a support library for the serial peripheral interface. This greatly aids the implementation. The code shown below was tested with both types of Arduino. For the slave we used an Altera or Xilinx based FPGA implementation as described on the next page. Refer to the first part of this article for details about the physical connection. In particular, once more, please read the part about 3.3V versus 5V when using an Arduino UNO R3.

Sources

The SPI library makes it very straightforward to implement a SPI master. You can clone this project from:

• SPI Master implementation, arduino-spi_byte.ino

The Arduino sends an alternating pattern of 0xAA and 0x55 to the FPGA. On the FPGA, LED[0] will be on when it receives 0xAA. Consequentially it will blink with 10% duty cycle. The FPGA always returns 0x55, what is displayed on the serial port.

Traces

Logic analyzer traces of the Arduino communicating with the FPGA. We see the SS going active, and the FPGA sending a byte over MISO to the Arduino. The data is sampled on the rising edge of SCLK.

Zoomed out, we see the Arduino receiving three bytes from the FPGA.

Specifies the SPI byte protocol. We use this to exchange bytes between the Arduino microcontroller and a FPGA. This is the third part of Math Talk. In this part we describe the protocol used to transfer bytes between the microcontroller and FPGA.

Bytes Exchange Protocol

With the two devices physically connected, we need a protocol to transfer data. We chose the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), a lightweight protocol to connect one master to one or more slaves.

Master/slave

The SPI bus is controlled by a master device (typically a microcontroller) that orchestrates the bus access. The master generates the control signals and regulates the data flow. The illustration below shows a master with three slaves. The pinout for SCLK, MOSI, MISO and SS can be found on the previous page. The master uses the Slave Select (SS) signal to select the slave.

Parameters

SPI is also a protocol with many degrees of freedom. It is important that the master and slave agree on the voltage levels and maximum clock frequency. The SPI clock polarity (CPOL) and clock phase (CPHA) introduce four more degrees of freedom as shown in the table below.

For this article we assume mode 3, where the clock is high when idle; data is driving following the falling edge of the clock and latched on the rising edge.

Operation

The protocol is easiest explained with shift registers as shown in the illustration below. The master generates the SPI Clock (SCLK) to initiate the information exchange. Data is shifted on one edge of this clock and is sampled on the opposite edge when the data is stable.

In mode 3, at the falling edge of SCLK, both devices drive their most significant bit (b7) on their outgoing data line. On the rising edge, both devices clock in this bit into the least significant bit position (b0). After eight SCLK cycles, the master and slave have exchanged their values and each device processes the data received (e.g. writing it to memory). In case there is more data to be exchanged, the registers are loaded with new data and the process repeats itself. Once all data is transmitted, the master stops the SCLK clock.

Slave select

For a more complete picture, we need to include the effect of the slave select (SS*) signal that is used to address the slave devices.

Slaves may only drive their output (MISO) line when SS* is active, otherwise they should tri-stated the output. The protocol can be broken down into the following steps:

1. The master initiates the communication by activating SS*.
   • The slave responds by starting to drive its MISO output.
   • Meanwhile the master drives its MOSI output.
2. The master makes SCLK low.
   • On this falling edge, the master and slave drive their most significant bit position (b7) on respectively their MOSI and MISO outputs.
3. The master makes SCLK high.
   • On this rising edge, the master and slave clock the input from their respectively MISO and MOSI inputs into the least significant bit position (b0).
4. Go back to step 2. until the least significant bit position (b0) has been sent.
5. When all bits are transmitted, the master deactivates SS*.

Implementation of the hardware SPI connection between an Intel Arduino 101 and a FPGA. Includes pinouts and schematic. This is the second part of Math Talk. We will describe the hardware components and the physical interconnect to communicate with the FPGA.

SPI connection between Arduino and FPGA

SPI is a protocol, in which one device (the master) controls one or more other devices (the slaves). For the master we use an open-source microcontroller prototyping platform, such as the Arduino 101 or a modified Arduino UNO R3. In this document we use Arduino to refer to either platform.

The slave can be a low-cost FPGA prototyping platforms, such as the Xilinx Spartan-6 Avnet LX9 or the Altera Cyclone-IV Terasic DE0-Nano.

The repository includes project files and pin assignments for both these boards. The code is written in HDL Verilog and should work equally well on more powerful boards.

Voltage levels

It is very important that the I/O voltage levels of the devices match. Both FPGA boards support 3.3V levels, and are a good match for the Arduino 101. However, the Arduino UNO uses the traditional 5 Volt TTL levels. Instead of using a level shifter, such as the 74LVC245, we opt for converting the Arduino to 3.3V according to Adafruit’s instructions. Running a 16 MHz clock at 3.3V is out of spec. Is said to work, but should really program the fuses to get the frequency down to abt. 13 MHz.

Signals

The SPI interface is a 4 wire interface. The bus consists of 3 signals plus a slave select signal for each device.

• SCLK, clock signal sent from the master to all slaves;
• MOSI, serial data from the master to the slaves (Master Out-Slave In);
• MISO, serial data from a slave to the master (Master In-Slave Out);
• SS_n, slave select signal for each slave.

Once the Arduino runs at 3.3V, connecting the two devices becomes trivial.

Pinouts

Connect

List of physical connections

Schematic

This series “Connecting Arduino to FPGA” describes how the Arduino can access custom registers on a FPGA. Hardware schematic and protocol implementation to transfer messages. Written in Verilog HDL and C.

Building Math Circuits implemented a math compute device on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This sequel describes a protocol and its implementation that enables a FPGA and microcontroller to communicate with each other. The idea is to generate operands on an microcontroller; the Math Hardware then performs the operations and returns the results. The communication between the devices is the focus of this article.

Connecting Arduino to FPGA

The protocol that we will use is called Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI). It is a synchronous full-duplex serial interface [1], and is commonly used to communicate with on-board peripherals such as EEPROM, FLASH memory, A/D converters, temperature sensors, or in our case a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).

We assume a working knowledge of the Verilog hardware description language. To learn more about Verilog refer a book such as “FPGA Prototyping with Verilog Examples” by Chu, do the free online class at verilog.com, or read through the slides Intro to Verilog from MIT. Instructions on installing the toolchain for the Verilog IDEs can be found at Getting Started with FPGA programming on Altera or on Xilinx.

Contents

The series “Connecting Arduino to FPGA” starts with describing the physical connections. We then look into exchanging bytes between a microcontroller and an FPGA. The last part implements an layer that allows message passing to custom registers.