Moonlight subsystem

For applications and projects that require complete subsystems, MINRES offers Moonlight – a configurable and extendable subsystem built around a TGC. Moonlight lets you jumpstart development with a pre-integrated, pre-verified foundation, reducing setup times and simplifying project scoping.

One practical application is using Moonlight as a housekeeping system for a bigger SoC: It acts as the first entry point on boot, setting up and configuring the rest of SoC system. During operation, it can be used for monitoring operations. It can also act as the central peripheral provider on the SoC.

At the heart of Moonlight, a freely customizable TGC core offers the processing capabilities, complemented by memory, an interconnect infrastructure and various peripherals and controllers.

This overall composition of Moonlight can be tailored to your specific requirements.

The Interconnect System connects TGC with the rest of the subsystem with support for bus protocols including AXI4, AHB3, APB, AXI4Lite, OBI, OCP.

It can also be implemented using multiple interconnects: for example one high-speed bus connected to TGC, the main memory and other components that require high throughput like the DMA engine. 
And a second lower-speed, area-optimized bus that connects the rest of the peripherals and components; a bridge connects it to the main bus, providing the required protocol conversions.

The memory system typically contains the main memory (implemented using SRAM), but can also include options like ROM.

We have a selection of standard peripherals available :

• High-speed interfaces: Ethernet, (Quad-)SPI incl. XIP, USB(2/3)

• Low-speed interfaces: UART, I2C/I3C, GPIO, I2S
• Other utilities: Timer/Counter, PWM

Other peripherals, including custom, can be integrated where required. Moonlight also enables the integration of additional components like DMA or interrupt controllers.

This configurability and flexibility of Moonlight is enabled by a generator-based approach, which allows for a fast composition of the target system by selecting the required components as well as quickly integrating project-specific IPs, e.g., targeting machine learning applications like The Good Accelerator (TGA).