Design and Development of FPGA based VMEbus interface controller (VIC) for Computer based I&C systems of fast reactors

Versa Module Eurocard (VME) backplane bus based architecture has been standardized for Real Time Computer (RTC) based I&C systems of Indian fast reactors. A typical RTC consists of a CPU card and a set of I/O cards. VMEbus based CPU card is currently being used in the computer based I&C systems of FBTR at IGCAR. The CPU card uses a commercial VMEbus Interface controller (VIC), which is now obsolete, to perform the functions of VMEbus system controller, VMEbus master and Interrupt Handler. To solve the part obsolescence problem and support long term maintainability, it has been envisaged to prototype VIC in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The specifications of the commercial VIC have been revised to suit the application, retaining only the features essential for the target application. This paper discusses the design, development, verification and testing of customized VIC.