Experiences Using the Xilinx Microblaze Softcore Processor and uCLinux in Computer Engineering Capstone Senior Design Projects

This paper describes the use of the Xilinx Microblaze 32-bit, soft-core processor in a series of senior design projects. The Microblaze was implemented on a commercial-off-the-shelf FPGA- based single board computer. The FPGA is pre-configured with the Microblaze running a version of Linux called uCLinux. Using this platform, students can develop custom hardware that can interface to the Microblaze using the OPB bus, and custom software that runs as a thread (or threads) on uClinux.