[Arm-netbook] xilinx zynq-7000 800mhz ARM Dual-Core Cortex A9

[Gordan Bobic]

On 08/20/2011 01:47 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 1:21 PM, Gordan Bobic<gordan at bobich.net>  wrote:
>> The other thing to consider here is whether we actually need 3D acceleration
>> on the ARM GPU at the moment.
>
>   well... here's the nice thing: i looked again at the OGP, and they
> are using the Spartan 3 4000.  that's equivalent to 4m gates, but is
> listed as only 65k logic cells.  the z-7030 is listed as 125k logic
> cells, they say it's equivalent to 1.9m gates.
>
>   so... that _actually_ means that yes, the CPU could itself *be* the OGP card!
>
>> If you want to extend to a bit of entertainment use, then some DSP to get HD
>> video playback is nice to have
>
>   ah no, you can use the FPGA+CPU for that!  the expensive part is the
> CABAC decoding (which, stupidly, cannot be parallelised), that would
> be handled by the FPGA: you then hand the data over to the NEONs,
> which now have a hell of a lot less work to do and could thus more
> than likely get you up to 1080p.  we know that NEON can handle 720p
> (complete decode) in dual-core cortex A9, so i reckon it's achievable.

Are you seriously suggesting the solution is FPGA instead of a ASIC for 
a low power application such as this??

Gordan