FPGA-based system for data acquisition and remote communication

Abstract

In this paper we present a system that we made for acquisition and processing of data on multiple channels (8 in total) and transmitting the remote results through the Ethernet interface. The solution chosen by us involves the system implementing in FPGA where any processes running in parallel can be described - the acquisition processes from the AD sensors and possibly data processing processes. Our solution is a fully integrated system in an FPGA, which is composed of two main parts: the acquisition and processing of data part, made of modules (IP core) working in parallel and the communication part that consists of an architect of RISC processor, which takes the data processed by the parallel modules and can transmit them by running libraries for the TCPIP communication, just like a stand-alone processor. The solution was basically made on a Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA circuit to which eight AD converters are connected, each taking data from one sensor. The model has an Ethernet interface which was used for remote data communication. On the processor implemented by us in FPGA we ran a TCP server, which through a client-server session allows the communication of the data.