Embedded Design with The Xilinx Embedded Developer Kit

Xilinx Training

Welcome

If you are new to Embedded design with Xilinx FPGAs, this module will help you start planning your design Understanding the difference between Xilinx’s FPGA architectures is essential if you are going to select an appropriate FPGA device family The Embedded Developers Kit software (EDK) is designed to make building a custom embedded design easy

Objectives

After completing this module, you will be able to: Choose between a PPC 440 and a MicroBlaze processor system Explain the primary tool functionality included with the Embedded Developers Kit (EDK) Explain the benefits of building an embedded design with an FPGA

Lessons Hardware Introduction Overview of EDK Embedded Development Design Flow Summary

Xilinx Embedded Processor Innovation

Performance Integration Flexibility Features PowerPC® 405 Hard Core in Virtex®-II PRO FPGA 32-bit RISC Processor Soft Core 2000 2002 2004 PowerPC 405 Hard Core in Virtex-4 FX FPGA

PowerPC 440

Embedded Block with Integrated Interconnect 2006 2008

Supported FPGAs

FPGA families

– Spartan-3/3A/3AN/3A DSP/3E FPGA (MicroBlaze processor) – Spartan-6 (MicroBlaze Processor) – Virtex-4 FX (MicroBlaze and PowerPC 405 processors) and LX/SX FPGA (MicroBlaze processor) – Virtex-5 FXT (MicroBlaze and PowerPC 440 processor) LX/LXT FPGA (MicroBlaze) – Virtex-6 (MicroBlaze processor)

Embedded Design in an FPGA

Embedded design in an FPGA consists of the following

– FPGA hardware design • Processor system  MicroBlaze processor (soft core)  PowerPC processor (PPC440 hard core)  PLB bus components • Other FPGA hardware – Software platform for processor system • Standalone  C language support  Processor services  C drivers for hardware • Third-party operating systems (optional) – User software application

PowerPC Processor-Based Embedded Design

DDR PPC DDR2 Memory Controller Dedicated Hard IP MCI PowerPC 440 Core DMA PLB v46 MPLB SPLB PLB v46 TEMAC Hi-Speed Peripheral e.g.

Memory Controller GB E-Net UART Off-Chip Memory ZBT SSRAM DDR SDRAM SDRAM GPIO Bus Master Full system customization to meet performance, functionality, and cost goals

MicroBlaze Processor-Based Embedded Design

BRAM Local Memory Bus MicroBlaze 32-Bit RISC Core Fast Simplex Link 0,1….7

Custom Functions Custom Functions CacheLink  UART I-Cache BRAM D-Cache BRAM Flexible Soft IP Configurable Sizes Possible in Virtex™-5 FXT PowerPC 440 Core SPLB PLB v46 MPLB PLB v46 Hi-Speed Peripheral GB E- Net Memory Controller SRAM FLASH/SRAM Off-Chip Memory

IP Peripherals

All are included FREE!

Bus infrastructure and bridge cores Memory and memory controller cores Debug Peripherals Arithmetic Timers Inter-processor communication External peripheral controller DMA controller PCI User core template …and Other cores

Lessons Hardware Introduction Overview of EDK Embedded Development Design Flow Summary

Embedded Development Kit

What is the Embedded Development Kit (EDK)?

– The Embedded Development Kit is the Xilinx software suite for designing • Complete embedded programmable systems • Processor sub-system component of larger design – The kit includes all the tools, documentation, and IP that you require for designing systems with embedded IBM PowerPC 440 hard processor cores and/or Xilinx MicroBlaze soft processor cores – SDK Eclipse-based software design environment – It enables the integration of both hardware and software components of an embedded system

XPS Functions

 Software application management – Software library generation (LibGen) – Software Profiling – Xilinx Microprocessor Debugger (XMD) and Software Debugging – Xilinx MicroKernel (XMK)  Platform management – System create wizard (BSB) – Netlist Generation (PlatGen) – Custom Peripheral creation wizard – Hardware Debugging (ChipScope) – Hardware Simulation (SimGen) Hardware Design HW/SW Simulation XPS Software Design - SDK HW/SW Debug

Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS)

See the Notes section for a detailed description Project Information Area Console Connectivity Panel System Assembly View

Lessons Hardware Introduction Overview of EDK Embedded Development Design Flow Summary

Embedded Development Design Flow

Create a new EDK project Use the Base System Builder (BSB) to construct your basic embedded design Run PlatGen to make your HDL instantiation files and netlist for each component in your embedded design Implement the embedded design with the ISE software Create and compile your software with SD Merge your compiled software with the FPGA bitstream using the Data2MEM utility Download your FPGA’s completed bitstream using iMPACT

Launching a New XPS Project

It is recommended that XPS processor projects be launched from Project Navigator in the ISE software

– Easy to integrate a processor sub system with other FPGA logic – Access to more Xilinx point tools – Easy software integration

The processor sub-system can be placed anywhere in the design hierarchy More on this in later modules

Starting out with a Processor Design

Many vendors support evaluation and demo boards with Xilinx FPGAs

– Xilinx – Avnet – Digilent

Base System Builder (BSB) is a wizard to facilitate a fast processor-based system design by high abstraction, level-specification entry

Virtex®-5 FPGA ML507 Spartan®-3E FPGA 1600E

Project Creation Using the Base System Builder

Select a target board Select a processor Configure the processor Select and configure I/O interfaces Add internal peripherals Generate system software and a linker script Generate the design

– Generated files include the following • • • •

system.mhs

system.xmp

data/system.ucf

pcore directory (empty)

Generating the Processor Hardware Netlist

Select Hardware



Generate Netlist Platform Generator: PlatGen

– Input file  MHS and MPD • The MHS file defines the configuration of the embedded processor system, including the bus architecture, peripherals and processor(s), interrupt request priorities, and address space • The MPD file defines the configurable parameters with their default values and available ports for a peripheral – Output files  system netlist, peripheral netlists, and BMM file – Creates the synthesis, HDL, and implementation directories – Generates the HDL wrapper files for the peripherals – Generates the top-level system HDL file – Extracts the peripheral netlists from the EDK install directory – Generates the BMM file – Calls XST to synthesize the top-level wrapper file

Detailed EDK Design Flow

Standard Embedded Software Flow Standard Embedded Hardware Flow Source Code (C code) MHS File system.mhs

Source Code (VHDL/Verilog) Compile Processor IP MPD Files PlatGen Synthesis Object Files LibGen EDIF IP Netlists Link Libraries system.ucf

FPGA Implementation (ISE/Xflow) Executable Data2MEM Create FPGA Programming (system.bit) download.bit

Hardware

Software Flow

Software development is performed with the Xilinx Software Development Kit (SDK) A hardware image XML file must first be generated to define the hardware platform for which the software application will be developed The SDK software tools will then attach the software project to the hardware SDK can be launched now or later, Export Only

SDK Software Development

SDK software development

– Create software platform • System software, board support package • LibGen program – Create software application – Create Linker Script – Build project  compile, assemble, link – Output file 

executable.elf

Merging Hardware and Software Flows

Hardware Flow Software Flow  Use of off-chip RAM encouraged for large pieces of software (typical) Data2MEM download.bit

GPIO MicroBlaze/ PPC Arbiter UART  FPGA Partial Reconfiguration enables the reprogramming of the Block RAM contents without reprogramming the entire FPGA – Saves download time – Saves re-implementation time – Enables software debugging

Configuring the FPGA

Download the bitstream

– Input file 

download.bit

– This downloads the

download.bit

file onto the target board by using the Xilinx iMPACT tool in batch mode

Accessible from all tools

– XPS – SDK – Project Navigator

Requires that the download cable is connected SDK ISE Tool XPS

Virtex-5 FPGA ML507 Lab Board

Xilinx USB platform cable – configures the FPGA (the other end is attached to the USB port of the PC) High-performance ribbon cable RS-232 cable – transmits serial information from your PC to your embedded system (the other end is attached to the PC). A null modem is needed.

Demo Boards

Spartan-3E FPGA XC3S1600E MicroBlaze Development Board Spartan-6 FPGA LXT SP605 MicroBlaze Development Board Virtex-5 FPGA FXT ML507 PowerPC Evaluation Platform  Lab instructions are provided for both the PowerPC 440 and MicroBlaze processors

Lessons Hardware Introduction Overview of EDK Embedded Development Design Flow Summary

Summary

The Embedded Development Kit (EDK) includes all the tools, documentation, and IP necessary for building embedded systems The Software Development Kit (SDK) is a comprehensive software development environment for simple software and firmware for complex applications The Base System Builder (BSB) makes it easy to build a full hardware design targeting an available demo board Merging software into an FPGA hardware bitstream is completed with the Data2MEM utility (Update Bitstream) Hardware netlists for an embedded design are implemented with the ISE tools

Where Can I Learn More?

Xilinx Embedded Processing page

–

www.xilinx.com/embedded

– Learn more about Embedded Design Kits for all Xilinx product families –

Xilinx online documents

• • • • • •

support.xilinx.com

Getting Started with the Embedded Development Kit Processor IP Reference Guide

 Right-click any peripheral from the IP Catalog to learn more about it

Embedded Systems Tools Guide Xilinx Drivers Processor reference guides

 PowerPC 405/440 Processor Block Reference Guide  MicroBlaze Processor Reference Guide For all docs, select

Help



EDK Online Documentation

from the EDK tools

Where Can I Learn More?

Xilinx Training Courses

–

www.xilinx.com/training

• Embedded Systems Development course  Rapidly architect an embedded system  Introduction to most of the EDK tools • Embedded Systems Software Development course  Rapidly architect an embedded software system  Introduction to the SDK (Software Development Kit) • Advanced Embedded Systems Development course  Take advantage of advanced features of the PPC440  Apply advanced debugging techniques including ChipScope  Design a Flash memory-based system and boot load from off-chip Flash memory • Customers spend 50% of their time in lab

What’s Next?

Related Video Courses

–

Embedded Design with the MicorBlaze Soft Processor Core

–

Embedded Design with the PPC 440

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