Soft core (synthesis)

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title: "Soft core (synthesis)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["soft-microprocessors", "open-hardware-electronic-devices"] description: "Type of digital circuit" topic_path: "general/soft-microprocessors" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_core_(synthesis)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Type of digital circuit ::

A soft core (also called softcore) is a digital circuit that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis. It can be implemented via different semiconductor devices containing programmable logic (e.g., ASIC, FPGA, CPLD), including both high-end and commodity variations. Many soft cores may be implemented in one FPGA. In those multi-core systems, rarely used resources can be shared between all the cores.

Examples of soft-core implementations are soft microprocessors, graphics chips like AGA or Open Graphics Project, hard disc controllers etc.

References

References

1. (2011-10-07). "Zet soft core running Windows 3.0".
2. (2006). "FPGA Architectures from 'A' to 'Z' : Part 2".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::