Xilinx

Embedded Systems

Embedded Systems Software Design

Course Description

This course introduces the concepts, tools, and techniques required for software design and development for the Zynq® System on a Chip (SoC) and Zynq UltraScale+™ MPSoC using the Vitis™ unified software platform.The focus is on:

• Reviewing the basics of Vitis tool use

• Customizing board support packages (BSPs) for resource access and management of the Xilinx Standalone library

• Utilizing device drivers effectively

• Developing software applications for the ARM® Cortex™-A9 processors

• Debugging and integrating user applications

• Employing best practices to enable good design decisions

Level

Embedded Software 3 

Duration

2 Days

Who Should Attend

Software design engineers interested in system design and implementation and software application development and debugging using the Xilinx Standalone library.

Course Prerequisites

• C or C++ programming experience, including general debugging techniques

• Conceptual understanding of embedded processing systems including device drivers, interrupt routines, writing / modifying scripts, user applications, and boot loader operation.

Software Tools

• Vitis unified software platform 2020.1

• Vivado® Design or System Edition 2020.1

Hardware

• Architectures: Zynq-7000 SoC (Cortex-A9 processor), and Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC (Cortex-A53 and Cortex-R5 processor)

• Demo board: Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZCU104 board

Skills Gained

After completing this comprehensive training, you will have the necessary skills to:

​

• Implement an effective software design environment for a Xilinx embedded system using the Xilinx software development tools

• Write a basic user application (under Standalone or Linux) using the Vitis unified software platform and run it on an embedded system

• Use Xilinx debugger tools to troubleshoot user applications

• Apply software techniques to improve operability

• Maintain and update software projects with changing hardware

Course Outline

Day 1

• Overview of Embedded Software Development Overview of the process for building a user application.

• Embedded UltraFast Design Methodology Outlines the different elements that comprise the Embedded Design Methodology.

• Zynq-7000 SoC Architecture Overview Overview of the Zynq-7000 SoC architecture.

• Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC Architecture Overview Overview of the Zynq UltraScale+™ MPSoC architecture.

• Driving the Vitis Software Development Tool Introduces the basic behaviors required to drive the Vitis tool to generate a debuggable C/C++ application.

• System Debugger Describes the basics of actually running a debugger and illustrates the most commonly used debugging commands.

• Standalone Software Platform Development and Coding Support Covers the various software components, or layers, supplied by Xilinx that aid in the creation of low-level software and includes a discussion on drivers, domains, operating systems, and libraries. Also covers the basic services (libraries) available when coding in the Standalone environment.

• FAT File System for Standalone Introduces the FAT file system (FFS) from the Standalone/Bare-metal library. The FFS provides drivers and utilities for effectively converting a region of memory into a file system.

• Using Linker Scripts Overview of the purpose and typical use of a linker script.

• Migrating from SDK to the Vitis Platform Overview of migrating existing Xilinx SDK projects to Vitis software development projects.

• Introduction to Interrupts Introduces the concept of interrupts, basic terminology, and generic implementation.

• Software Interrupts: Writing Describes many of the considerations that a software coder must take into account when supporting interrupts.​

Day 2

• Operating Systems: Introduction and Concepts Introduces the concept of the operating system and provides a simplified view into the generic way that operating systems work.

• Linux: A High-Level Introduction Introduces the Linux operating system, a brief history, and how to use it.

• Linux Software Application Development Overview Highlights important parts of the underlying Linux system as it pertains to applications.

• Driving the PetaLinux Tool Introduces the basic concepts required to build an application using the PetaLinux tool.

• Building a Linux Application in the Vitis IDE Provides an introduction tousing the Xilinx Vitis IDE tool for Linux software development.

• Booting Overview Describes the main points to how booting a processor is handled for Zynq SoC devices and MicroBlaze processors.

• Software Profiling Overview Introduces the purpose and techniques for profiling a user application. Understanding Device Drivers Explains the concept of a device driver and how it is used by embedded systems.

• Custom Device Drivers Describes how to successfully write a custom device driver.​