New Robot Control System!

[Eldarion]

Originally Posted by BrianBSL

As far as the cost of software - the synthesis tools (ISE webpack) and simple simulation tools (the free ModelSim) are free. However, the EDK - which lets you setup the microprocessor inside the FPGA (includes the logic for the MicroBlaze and the stuff to setup the PowerPC) is expensive ($1000). I think that would be a necessary part of any FPGA system for a robot controller, as writing your autonomous in Verilog or VHDL would just be a pain, not to mention the synthesis time, whereas 64+ megs of DDR memory and plenty of flash memory with an Eclipse SDK and gcc and g++ would be a welcomed change. I've had 20+ min synthesis times on a Virtex 2 Pro project I was working on, which I simply don't think will work for FIRST applications.

I agree with the need for an embedded microcontroller. I wonder if any of the open-source ones listed on this page might do? http://www.opencores.org/browse.cgi/by_category