A prototyping platform based on a PCI micronetwork and Leon multiprocessor system

System-on-chip (SoC) designs provide integrated solutions to challenging design problems in the telecommunication, multimedia, and consumer electronics domains. Much of the progress in these fields hinges on the designers ability to conceive complex electronic engines under strong time to market pressure. Success relies on using appropriate design and process technologies, on the ability to interconnect existing components including processors, controllers, and memory array reliably as well as on the capability to validate such complex designs. This last point is the topic of this paper, which presents a prototyping methodology and flexible hardware platform developed to facilitate rapid prototyping and validation of such telecommunication systems.