[J-core] 2 CPU:s or nothing

[Daniel V]

Hi!

Ok, some philosophical stuff here. And not critique of any kind.

I just want to remind about something...

If you want to boot a system you have a MCU and a CPU. Why cant both
be built upon j-core?

Is Linux capable of low latency stuff? Or do you use a FPGA for that?
So if you use a ASIC with j-core, do you then need 1ASIC, 1FPGA 1MCU?
Why is than that ASIC needed, and why is that FPGA needed? I
understand if you want to build a custom platform that you can dump
that FPGA and separate MCU, but it would be highly specific. But why
not make it more general?

Maybe that ASIC could have 1MCU and 1CPU. And why not let that MCU
have 2 memory blocks, A boot-loader, and a separate memory for loading
Arduino sketches or stuff like that. That MCU can then be used to
patch the holes that Linux has on the real-time side.

Maybe it's possible to reduce the need of the number of development
chains to a fewer number, by letting that MCU be built upon a J-core.
Maybe that wouldn't be space efficient, but is that really a concern.
It's a lot cheaper than to have a separate of the shelf MCU and board
space for it. If that MCU built upon J-core you could have a masked
boot ROM in the ASIC, and then be load new programs into RAM. That
wouldn't be efficient but cheep, and give fewer tool chains, and a lot
easier to design things with that ASIC later on.

Building a ASIC is a bit confusing. Because inefficient things is
cheep. I'm not promoting bad design. I'm promoting flexibility by
extending the thought a bit longer, and realize that extended
capability will save money and time later on and give a longer
usability of that ASIC, for other loads of projects by making it more
general. It would cost more for that first application. But is really
the ASIC the cost split over the number of pieces, than maybe that
separate MCU should be dumped.

I'm not saying that this is what to do, I'm saying that it's a thought
that may come in handy for building upon a possible future. It would
draw people to that platform, instead of away from it, because it does
not have any practical applications for them.

Have a nice day

// Daniel V.