Vitis: Software

Lecture Videos

On June 21, 2021 we had a Vivado Vitis Tutorial by Prof Goeders. The video is embedded below:

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction
8:44 Introduction to block design and hardware configuration
29:34 Preparing and generating a bitstream
42:58 Introduction to Vitis and exporting from Vivado
47:52 Example Vitis project

Create Vitis Projects

Run Vitis (vitis), and choose a workspace location. I used lab_vitis/sw for my workspace location.

Create the platform project

The platform project generates the standalone software layer code, which provides a software layer to access hardware and processor features (timers, interrupts, etc) in a bare-metal environment.

1. File->New->Platform Project.
2. Chose a Platform Project name. I chose 625_hw.
3. Browse to your .xsa file name.
   

4. Click Finish.

5. Change the stdout output. By default, the output from your program will be sent over the physical UART pins present on the board. But instead of having to connect a UART to the board, we will use the option that allows us to send stdout over an virtual UART using the JTAG (USB) connection.
   • Expand your platform project, and double click on the platform.spr file. Select the standalone on ps7_cortexa9_0->Board Support Package, and click Modify BSP Settings.
     
   • In the Board Support Package Settings popup, go to the standalone menu, and change stdout to use coresight_comp_0.
     
   • Click OK to close the window and save the BSP settings.
6. Build the BSP code. Right click on your platform project and choose Build Project.

Create the application project

1. File->New->Application Project.
2. Chose your platform that you created in the last step.
   
3. Choose an application name (ie. HelloWorld), and continue through the next screens.
4. On the Templates screen, choose Empty Application (C++), and then click Finish.
5. After you complete the wizard, find the src directory, and right click New->File, and create a main.cpp.
6. Create a simple application:

   #include <stdio.h>  
   int main() {
     printf("Hello World\n");
   }
   

7. Build your application. Right click on your application project and choose Build Project.

Run Your Applicaton on the Board

• Right-click on your executable folder (down one level from the _system project created in the last step – see image below), choose Run As->Launch on Hardware (Single Application Debug.
  

• To view the program output, you will need to use the console selector button in the Console window to select the *TCF Debug Virtual Terminal - ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore #0 console. This is the JTAG console for core 0.

• You should see the message Hello World.