Preliminary validation of an approach dealing with processor obsolescence

Processor obsolescence is a big concern affecting most equipment involved in safely critical applications (automotive, aerospace, nuclear plants, military applications...). Indeed, such applications are active years longer than was originally anticipated. A method for validating the solution consisting in the replacement of a processor, not available any more in the market, by its emulated version by means of an FPGA is presented in this paper. The Motorola 6800 processor is used as a test vehicle to illustrate the key aspects of the explored validation plan. Significant experimental results and their impact on the HDL description are discussed.