POEtic ::a prototyping platform for bio-inspired hardware

This paper will present the final hardware realization of a new family of programmable devices that has specifically being conceived in order to address the prototyping of bio-inspired principles. The devices are organized around a custom 32-bit RISC microprocessor and a custom FPGA. The internal architecture devised for the devices is scalable, so that it is possible to construct a physical hardware platform whose size matches the requirements of the application to be handled. To facilitate the development of applications for this hardware platform a complete set of design tools has been developed