Getting Started with the ZUBoard, Vivado and Vitis

Introduction

In this project we are going to walk through how to install Vivado and Vitis, this is project is going to be part of the supporting information for an upcoming webinar on Motor Control with the Avnet ZUBoard. However, it also forms a good reference project for anyone which to get started with Vivado and Vitis.

Getting the Installer

The first thing we need to do is download the web installer which can be accessed at the link below.

https://www.xilinx.com/support/download.html

Once the web page opens select the desired operating systems installer either Windows or Linux. I will be using Windows in this example however the steps for the Linux based installer are identical.

Once you have selected your version of installer and clicked on the link you need to sign in with your AMD account. If you do not have one you will need to create one at this point.

Signing in will take you to the export compliance verification page where you will be able to download the installer.

Running the Installer

Once the installer has downloaded, run the executable

The first page of the installer will provide an introduction to the installer, the operating systems supported and recommend disabling any anti virus software.

Click on next and you will again need to again provide user authentication, select download and install now option

Click next and select the Vitis installation, this will install both Vitis and Vivado Design Suite.

Click on next, we are then able to customise the installation for an optimal installation size. To keep the installation size low I have disabled installation of everything apart from Zynq-7000 and Zynq UltraScale+MPSoC devices. This will require about 80 GB of disk space when completed.

Click next and agree with the license agreements.

Click next and agree to the installation directory

Click next and the installation summary will be shown.

Clicking install will start the installation process, this will take a little time

Verification of the Installation

Once the installation is completed, open Vivado 2023.1

Select create new project and click next

Enter a project name and the project location

Select RTL project and do not specify sources at this time

Select Refresh and if you are connected to the internet this will download several new boards into Vivado.

Once this is completed select Avnet as the vendor and scroll down to the ZuBoard 1GC development board. We need to click on the download button to install the board

Once the board is installed, you will see an image of the ZUBoard select it and click on next

This will show a summary of the project click finish

This will open the project

Click on Create Block Design

When the block diagram opens, click on the + symbol and add in a Zynq UltraScale MPSoC block

Click on the block automation

Click OK - This will configure the Zynq PS processing system for use with the ZUBoard.

Once the the automation has been completed, connect the PL CLK to the ACLK

On the sources tab select create HDL wrapper

Let Vivado manage the block diagram

Once this is completed, click generate bit stream

Select the number of jobs (processors used)

Click OK and wait for the bit stream to be generated, once the bitstream is successful click cancel

We need to export the XSA for use in Vitis, from the file menu select export hardware

Click on next

Select include bitstream

Leave the paths as default

Click on Finish

From the tools menu select launch Vitis

Vitis

before Vitis will open we need to specify the workspace this is where all the SW elements will be kept.

Once Vitis is open we need to create a application project

When the dialog opens click on next

Select the XSA which you exported from Vivado

Enter a name for the project and leave everything else the same

Leave the domain unchanged

Select the Hello World application and click finish

This will open the project

Build the project by clicking on the hammer

Connect the ZUBoard to your development machine and power it on and from the assistant select launch hardware.

This will download the application to the board and halt the program execution at the first executable line

Click in the Vitis Serial terminal and select the com port connected to the ZUBoard. Click OK

Click on the resume icon and you will see the application run and complete showing the hello world message.

This shows we have successfully installed the Vivado and Vitis and can run it on the ZUBoard.

Wrap Up

In this project we have seen how to install Vivado and Vitis along with creating a simple hello world program to pipe clean the process. This gets us ready for creating more advanced applications.