Additional Hardware Module with Xilinx MicroBlaze Processor

Hey all,

I have a Xilinx Spartan-3E starter board, and I'm implementing a
MicroBlaze processor on the FPGA. I would also like to use the LCD
which is on board, and I have already developed a hardware module that
takes care of initialization and printing to the LCD. The interface
is shown below:

entity LCD_top is
Port (
clk : in STD_LOGIC;
reset : in STD_LOGIC;

din : in STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (7 downto 0);
din_ready : in STD_LOGIC;
busy : out STD_LOGIC;

LCD_D : out STD_LOGIC_VECTOR (11 downto 8);
LCD_E : out STD_LOGIC;
LCD_RS : out STD_LOGIC;
LCD_RW : out STD_LOGIC

);
end LCD_top;

I really would like to instantiate this module along with the
processor core. My question is this - how would I go about
interfacing this with the MicroBlaze processor internal to the FPGA?
What I would like to do is define a GPIO port on the processor to
connect to the din, din_ready and busy lines of the LCD module, but I
keep getting the following error:

ERROR:MDT - INST:LCD_data_status_10Bit PORT:GPIO_IO
CONNECTOR:LCD_data_status_10Bit_GPIO_IO - C:\EDK_Test_LCD
\system.mhs line 150
- connection is not connected to an external port!
MPD subproperties IOB_STATE=BUF|REG or THREE_STATE=TRUE require
that the port
be connected directly to an external port.

Is there any way to work around this? I realize I could just connect
the LCD to the GPIO directly and write software drivers, but I'm
trying to avoid that because I already have the hardware module in
place and working smoothly. It will also be nice to have this
separate module so that it does the work of printing to the LCD, and
the processor itself can stay busy with other more important jobs.

Also, is there an easier way to add another hardware module without
manually editing the generated VHDL files for the core? I'm not sure
if you can do that within Platform Studio.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

Ray
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Additional Hardware Module with Xilinx MicroBlaze Processor
    ... and I have already developed a hardware module that ... takes care of initialization and printing to the LCD. ... What I would like to do is define a GPIO port on the processor to ... manually editing the generated VHDL files for the core? ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)
  • Re: Additional Hardware Module with Xilinx MicroBlaze Processor
    ... a pcore for your LCD module. ... You can write to the fsl interface with the function putfslx, ... What I would like to do is define a GPIO port on the processor to ... and write to the FSL bus suffice? ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)
  • Re: Additional Hardware Module with Xilinx MicroBlaze Processor
    ... A pcore in EDK contains the HDL files and a set of data files. ... a pcore for your LCD module. ... You can write to the fsl interface with the function putfslx, ... What I would like to do is define a GPIO port on the processor to ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)
  • Re: Additional Hardware Module with Xilinx MicroBlaze Processor
    ... Your busy signal needs be high when it can't accept a new word even ... You can write to the fsl interface with the function putfslx, ... I would also like to use the LCD ... What I would like to do is define a GPIO port on the processor to ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)
  • Re: Additional Hardware Module with Xilinx MicroBlaze Processor
    ... Your busy signal needs be high when it can't accept a new word even ... You can write to the fsl interface with the function putfslx, ... I would also like to use the LCD ... What I would like to do is define a GPIO port on the processor to ...
    (comp.arch.fpga)