[Speakers] Re: SVLUG October 2002

[Peter Ryser]

Steve,

here is a first draft.

- Peter

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WHAT:

  Linux on Programmable Hardware

WHO:

  Peter Ryser, Xilinx Inc


ABOUT:

Loadable modules have made Linux configurable at run-time a few years ago. Now, the hardware and,
especially, the on-chip peripherals are following. The Virtex-II Pro FPGAs have up to four IBM 405
processor cores and up to 24 multi-gigabit transceivers integrated within their user-programmable logic
fabric. This allows for very high flexibility for system architects to integrate the on-chip peripherals
they need in the most optimal way.

Peter is responsible for the embedded Linux project on the Virtex-II Pro FPGAs. Together with MontaVista,
he integrates the device drivers for the custom on-chip peripherals into the Linux kernel source tree. The
main focus of his work is to bring together the high flexibility of the Linux operating system with the
high versatility of the Virtex-II Pro architecture.

As part of his talk, Peter will explain how the hardware inside the FPGA device can be upgraded even after
deployment and how hardware functionality, similar to the Linux kernel modules, can be loaded or replaced
at system run-time.

Peter will bring a ML300 Reference Platform running MontaVista Linux natively on the Virtex-II Pro FPGA.
All the peripherals like Ethernet, UARTs, PS/2 for mouse and keyboard, TFT display and touchscreen are
implemented as soft peripherals within the FPGA. As a fun application Quake can be played on top of X11.
The ML300 board serves both as a reference design but also as a development platform.

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

After graduating in 1994 from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Peter spent a few years
at the Institute of Computer Systems of the same university in researching and prototyping Switcherland,
an interconnected computing infrastructure based on switches and serial high-speed links offering
scalability, guaranteed bandwidth, and QoS characteristics. After a short intermezzo at Elektrobit AG in
Switzerland, he moved to the USA and joined Xilinx in late 2000. He is responsible for embedded software
within the Systems Engineering Group with a focus on embedded Linux and software tools for different
platforms.

Peter got into Linux at a time when you needed a large pile of floppy disks to install a distribution and
kernel version numbers started with a zero. Being merely a user and administrator of his own Linux
systems, he always liked the idea of having source code available for pure interest and also as a source
for adding additional device drivers to the Oberon operating system.

Aside from work, Peter likes to explore California together with his family. He plans to visit all the US
states in the next few years - that means only 44 more to go.