Littlel6 - small scale 16-bit controller architecture for FPGA systems flow control

Abstract

Apart from high performance computing data path, small scale micro-controllers that organize control flow and data transactions play an important role in FPGA system designs. Little16, a RISC 16-bit micro-controller, is proposed and implemented in this work. Competitive size and ease of coupling make Little16 an alternative choice in light weight FPGA data flow controlling. Pipelined Little16 yields a clock speed of 311MHz on Xilinx Zynq7000 FPGA platform at the cost of 366 LUT-6 blocks and 310 Flip-Flops. Small amount of silicon utilization with highly improved performance suggest Little16 as an alternative choice for FPGA data path control.