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robinned / RISCV-MCU

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Adding Off-Chip program memory #2

Open robinned opened 1 year ago

robinned commented 1 year ago

In its current state, the project requires assembled programs to be synthesized with the MCU. This is slow, limits software development, and makes the processor less versatile.

The purpose of this issue is to find and implement a way to have programs be loaded into an already synthesized MCU.

robinned commented 1 year ago

There are two methods that seem possible at the current moment.

First is utilizing the Basys 3's included UART, and having a computer communicate the program during MCU startup. This would require setting up an RTL design to utilize existing UART hardware, creating a startup/memory loading state in the MCU, and figuring out a simple and reliable way to send a program over the UART from a computer.

The second is by utilizing the SPI mode of an SD card. This requires making an RTL design to read/write from a connected SD card, and then modifying the MCU memory module to incorporate this.