Partial reconfiguration-oriented design of logic controllers

Paper presents the CAD system, referred to as PeNCAD, which supports the design of logic controllers. The system developed at the University of Zielona Gora allows designing concurrent logic controllers specified by means of Petri net. The designed control system is implemented in the reprogrammable FPGA structure. The further development of the system has been discussed in details regarding the application of the partial reconfiguration systems. The use of the partial reconfiguration FPGA-based systems in the process of logic controllers' design enables to increase their flexibility and functionality. Additional consequences come in the form of the decrease in hardware requirements needed for the implementation processes of the logic controller. The reconfiguration consists in replacing of the subnet associated with a macroplace. The Xilinx FPGA devices were used while carrying out the tests.