Vivado BSP

Overview

The Vivado® Design Suite allows you to create projects based on specific development boards.

When you select our TE board as a development boards, you need first install TE Board Support Package.

You now have two options for installing the TE BSP.

• Option1: Install into a User Repository
• Option2: Install into the Vivado installation

Option1: Install into a User Repository

This Option allows you to install the BSP to any location of your choosing. The disadvantage is that it required an additional command to point the tools to your repository.

1. Extract the archive to a location of you choosing.This document and the included init.tcl file will use C:/TEBoards for the path. You will need to modify the instructions and edit the init.tcl file to match your location. When editing the TCL file, be sure to use the forward slash / for the path.
   
   
2. Note that this location will have a boards sub-directory as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   
   To make this User Repository visible to Vivado, you must either issue a command each time you launch Vivado, or you can set up a permanent initialization TCL that is read by Vivado each time it launches.   
   
   
3. Set the following parameter either in your “init.tcl” file or as the first command after the Vivado integrated design environment (IDE) opens. Notice the direction of the ‘/’ forward slash. A backward slash will be accepted, but the path will not be registered correctly.  
   
   set_param project.boardPartRepoPaths C:/TEBoards  
   
   Setting this parameter in the Vivado TCL Console is shown below. 
   
   
   
   
4.  If you choose to use the init.tcl file method, then you will also need to add the following as the first line in your init.tcl:  
   
   set_param project.boardPartRepoPaths.editable true  
   
   A working init.tcl file is provided in the archive with this tutorial. 
   
   

   Details about the init.tcl file are included in UG835 Vivado Design Suite Tcl Command Reference Guide. UG835 describes where to put the init.tcl file. 

5. If you choose to use the init.tcl method, place this file 
    a. In the software installation: 
   
        installdir/Vivado/version/scripts/init.tcl 
   
    b. In the local user directory:
   
         i. For Windows : %APPDATA%/Roaming/Xilinx/Vivado/init.tcl
   
         ii. For Linux: $HOME/.Xilinx/Vivado/init.tcl 
   
   The initialization TCL is very convenient. Be aware that if you use the installdir, this will affect all users of that installation. If you use your local user directory, this will affect all versions of Vivado that you are using and may generate a benign error when launching an older version. For example, using the local user repository, a launch of Vivado 2013.4 produces the following error. Simply press Continue to dismiss this error.

Option2: Install into the Vivado installation

This is the quickest option, but it is not recommended by Xilinx. Use at your own risk.

1. Extract the archive to the following location.  installdir\Vivado\2014.4\data   
   
   
2. Now browse to the following location. The screenshot below shows the contents of this directory after the installation of the TEboards. 
   installdir\Vivado\2014.2\data\boards\board_parts\ artix7

Test in Vivado

Regardless of which method you choose, the new boards should now be visible in Vivado 2014.4 for vendor trenz.biz . To test this out, do the following.

1. Launch Vivado 2014.4.
2. Select Create New Project.
3. Click Next>  to get started.
4. Set the project name and location. Press Next>.
5. Select project type Click Next>.
6. At the Default Part screen,
   a, Click Boards under Specify.
   b, Click trenz.biz under Vendor.
   
   

The options should appear as shown.

For more information about this capability, please refer to the following Quick Take video.

http://www.xilinx.com/training/vivado/using-vivado-with-xilinx-evaluation-boards.htm

Software Requirements

The software used is

• Windows-7 64-bit
• Xilinx Vivado 2014.4