On the plus side, it is definitly possible to use a 16 bit external memory controller with the microblaze. This page confirms this and gives some instructions.
/*I am trying to figure out how to fit a microblaze, and possibly a ethernet MAC into the
constraints of the 2100 slice core on the only xilinx FPGA it is viable to use.
I think our options on the MAC are:
1: dont use it, find a smaller / write a protocol
2: write a reduced version.
Remember: we dont need a lot of features like duplex, 10/100, etc. If their core id 1000 slices, ours only needs to be 100.
*/
EDIT: have found that there is another core that doesnt support DMA but is just 700 slices, which is "good". It does do interupts. If we do the programming in software (easy) then its a goer
Microblaze supports 700 to a very high number of slices.
Only experimentation will tell if the core can be kept within say 1000 without sacraficing functionality.
As for the network, I'll have a look into it, maybe if we are doing this it might be worth using the mesh? maybe not.
TODO:
experiment with microblaze on (significantly) a spartan 3E
read up on ethernet propperly
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there is a OBP MAC "lite" that fits in 700 slices.
that means
1000 for core
700 for mac
= 500 for on chip bus, my (fairly minimal module), and maybe timer
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