This paper presents the design and implementation of access controller used for Ethernet passive optical network (EPON).As a first step to develop an ASIC product, the entire system is designed on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) with an embedded CPU. To reduce working frequency of the FPGA, the byte-to-word conversion is proposed. Propagation delays are equalized by ranging procedure so as to avoid data collision. Implementations of synchronization, classification, as well as Linux porting are illustrated in detail. The interface between the FPGA and CPU are also presented. Experimental results show that the proposed system can properly function in a relatively low cost FPGA.