MSL16 Processor

The MSL16 machine is a CPU optimised to run the Forth programming language. It is similar to the minimal instruction set computers described in Jeff Fox's Forth microprocessor page , but implemented on a Xilinx FPGA. When the system is stable, the VHDL source code for the CPU and all the code will be released to make a complete public domain CPU.

At the moment, we are optimizing the design for speed, and Brad Eckert is developing a version of ANS Forth for MSL16.

Files

Postscript version of a paper P.H.W. Leong, P.K. Tsang and T.K. Lee, "A FPGA Based Forth Microprocessor", Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM)", Napa Valley, California USA, 1998. An Adobe PDF version of the same document (smaller but the fonts look terrible).
MSL16 simulator for MSL16 written by Brad Eckert which works on FPC
MSL16 VHDL code
SOD32 development system - a machine very similar to MSL16

Interesting Links

Homebrewing RISC Microprocessors In FPGAs
Jeff Fox's Forth microprocessor page
Stack Computers & Forth
FORTH on the Web
Skip Carter's Forth page
Brad Eckert's home page