How cool is this? The Java Optimized Processor provides an design for a Java CPU that can be embedded on your own fpga chips, or I would assume even larger scale ASIC’s.

Found this via OpenCores which I found via Kuri5hin’s A Verilog Introduction.

The design is very small and would be cool for use in certain microcontroller applications. The author has created a tiny board which contains an ethernet chip as well.

Now, if you dont have an underlying OS for your java, you need to write a low level Microcontroller OS in Java to do networking. So the author implemented a nice looking little TCP/IP stack in JAVA called EJIP. This comes with such things as simple web server.

Great work, now combine this with an external DAC and an internal USB2.0 with some FFT for MP3 decoding (Yes I am showing my ignorance, I have no idea how MP3 works and if it at all uses FFT’s) and you would have a home customized mp3 player customizable in Java.

In any respect OpenCores is exceptionally cool as is the JOP. If I only had time I would buy one of the home kits and experiment. Chip design was one of my favorite subjects way back at uni and I’ve had an unhealthy fascination for FPGA’s since I was 17 years old and tried to design a parallel multimedia computer using them and the Transputer. Needless to say this early attempt at world domintation didnt take off, but I certainly had fun trying.