Linux Based Ethernet Communication for Xilinx FPGAs

This article presents the implementation of an Ethernet communication platform for use on Xilinx FPGAs. The proposed solution relies on a synthesized embedded system to provide network data transfer and control capabilities, for use with synthesizable electronic devices. Most TCP/IP stack services and protocols were implemented and the design is flexible to allow adaptation and/or expansion for different application scenarios. Currently this platform is being used on the development of a FPGA based JTAG controller, with remote access. The embedded system hardware requires a MicroBlaze softcore microprocessor running a Petalinux operating system.