I'm reading the Spartan 6 user guide on the Memory Controller Block (MCB). The following quote discusses two design flows:
There are two supported design flows for the MCB:
1) Non-embedded design flow
- Conventional FPGA design with the Xilinx® ISE® tool flow
- MIG tool is used within the CORE Generator™ tool for MCB designs
2) Embedded design flow
- Processor-based FPGA system design with EDK tool flow
- IP Configurator in Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS) is used within the EDK environment for MCB designs
I'm not quite sure I understand the difference between the two design flows (despite the above "explanation"). What are the non-embedded and embedded design flows?
Best Answer
Embedded means "integral " or "deeply rooted" (adjective) In this case the noun is "design flows" specifically Xilinx's design flows.
Xilinx has some really big design bricks that are fee based IP circuits like {PLL with Phase Freq detector} or {RLL encoder/decoder} which saves you some grey cells late at nite at the expense of your boss's $ when it goes into production. So limit these choices to critical low volume usage or when there is no other choice.
Of course non-embedded means .. you are on your own baby...its a big chip with a matrix of inputs and outputs.
If that clears it up . score accordingly. Xilinx has some amazing library bricks in EDK but not free.... so cost of solution depends on your learning skills and experience.