MCU Core License Enhances FPGAs

The LatticeMico8 is an 8-bit soft microcontroller core for the company’s LatticeECP, LatticeEC and LatticeXP families of FPGAs. It is an open IP core license, the first such license offered by any FPGA supplier. The core consumes less than 200 look-up tables (LUTs) and contains a broad feature set: 18-bit wide instructions, 32 general-purpose registers, 32 bytes of internal scratch-pad memory, up to 256 I/O ports, optional 256 bytes of external scratch-pad RAM, 2 cycles/instruction and a Lattice UART reference design peripheral. In addition to the core design in Verilog, an assembler and instruction-set simulator, both in source code, are provided. Four configurations are possible, each optimized for user needs. The number of registers can be 16 or 32, the internal scratch pad can be 16 or 32 bytes, and the external scratch pad can be present or not. A demo is available by download that allows a working design to be implemented on a Lattice evaluation board in less than 30 minutes. LATTICE SEMICONDUCTOR CORP., Hillsboro, OR. (503) 268-8000.