Virtual SPx peripherals

By extending the concept of the onboard SPx peripheral one step further, we get the idea of a Virtual SPx Peripheral. This is an add-on function in the SPLat that exists purely within the Firmware and on-chip resources of the processor chip. What we can in effect do is create a program that performs some specialised function, locate it in the same chip as the SPLat processor, and connect between it and the SPLat function using the SPx programming framework.

The benefit of this compared to simply adding to the SPLat instruction set lies in the fact that is allows modular extensions to the basic SPLat capability. In effect it is a model that allows us to add custom instructions (i.e. processing capability) to the processor without cluttering up the base instruction set. In the modern idiom it is an object oriented approach to expandability.

The OBCA function is a virtual SPx peripheral. A more elaborate example would be a (hypothetical) onboard data logging function. The virtual data logger would use part of the chip's Flash memory as a logging memory, and would have its own command set for accessing that memory. Implementing this within the SPx framework means that if you need more logging memory than exists on the chip, we could make you a custom board with a HUGE memory, and your existing SPLatWare investment would be protected.