Cobham Gaisler AB provides IP cores and supporting development tools for embedded processors based on the SPARC architecture. We specialize in digital hardware design for both commercial and aerospace applications

GRSPWROUTER SpaceWire Routing Switch

The GRSPWROUTER IP core is a VHDL model of a SpaceWire routing switch as defined in the ECSS-E-ST-50-12C standard. The core is highly configurable, flexible and portable to a wide variety of FPGA and ASIC technologies. The core supports all mandatory and optional features in the ECSS-E-ST-50-12C standard and can be configured from the minimum number of ports 2 to the maximum 31. In addition to this there is the mandatory configuration port. The configuration port provides access to configuration and status registers and the routing table using the Remote Memory Access Protocol (RMAP) defined in ECSS-E-ST-50-52C. The SpaceWire Plug-and-Play (PnP) protocol can optionally be supported on the configuration port.

 

GRSPWROUTER block diagram

Features

  • Compliant with ECSS-E-ST-50-12C
  • Routing
    • Non-blocking switch-matrix connecting any input port to any output port
    • Path, Logical and Regional Logical addressing
    • Group Adaptive Routing (GAR): from 1 port to all ports for both path and logical addresses
    • Packet distribution: from 1 port to all ports for both path and logical addresses
    • Two priority levels for output port arbitration
  • Configuration port using the RMAP protocol (ECSS-E-ST-50-52C ) with optional support for the SpaceWire PnP protocol (currently SpaceWire-PnP Protocol Definition, Draft A Issue 2.1)
  • 2 - 31 ports individually configurable as SpaceWire, FIFO or AMBA ports
  • Supports high data rates. Up to 200 Mbit/s in both directions on a single link on Actel RTAX and up to 400 Mbit/s on Xilinx Virtex 4
  • Support for external Cobham UT200SpWPHY01 SpaceWire Physical Layer Transceiver
  • System-time distribution
  • Optional AMBA AHB slave interface for fast access to the configuration area and routing table
  • Technology independent design. Can easily be implemented on a wide range of ASIC and FPGA technologies
  • Easily expandable through the AMBA AHB bus to other bus types such as Mil-Std-1553B, CAN bus, Ethernet and USB
  • Optional timers on ports to prevent locking situations

Benefits

The different port types along with the high degree of configurability and technology support makes the core very suitable in a wide range of different systems and makes it possible for designers to optimize area and performance. It can be made as a standalone router ASIC, FPGA or as part of an AMBA bus based processor system. In each case the router core and configuration space will be the same making it easy to migrate to new systems. The core provides numerous interfacing possibilities. 

A wide range of configuration registers and signals are provided, allowing the user to have full control of the router, for example to disable configuration accesses from certain ports or to filter time-code propagation.

Area and timing

The table below shows the approximate gate count and frequency for different GRSPWROUTER configurations on Actel RT ProASIC3, Actel RTAX, and Xilinx Virtex 4 technologies.

Core configuration Actel RT ProASIC3
 Actel RTAX Xilinx Virtex 4
SpaceWire ports 10 10 20
AMBA ports 0 0 11
FIFO ports 2 2 0  
Area 40700 VersaTiles/50 RAM512x18 21500 C/10200 R/26 RAM64K36 78000 LUT/75 RAM  
Core clock 30 MHz 25 MHz 50 MHz  
Link rate 180 Mbit/s 200 Mbit/s 200 Mbit/s

Availability

Currently only available as a pre-programmed FPGA or as part of the RASTA prototyping system.

Documentation