SimP: a core for FPLD-based custom-configurable processors

Standard building blocks play a very important role in the use of new semiconductor technologies such as field programmable logic devices (FPLDs). New design methodologies, that will increase designer productivity and the general quality of design, are necessary in order to use the power of FPLDs especially in embedded applications. One of the promising methods is the merging of the hardware and software parts of the solution, where general processor cells become very important as the core of software part of solution, in the custom computing machine. In this paper we present a new general purpose simple processor cell which is easily implemented in an FPLD and used as a library block that can be extended or combined with other library cells to form custom application-specific configurations.