Path to Programmable Blog 13 - Xilinx Libraries, the TE Sensor PMOD & Next Steps

Chapter 10 Video - Xilinx Libraries

This video explored the system libraries that Xilinx includes with SDK. These can be configured and initialized from the BSP settings eg- the Flash library allows users to select the manufacturer (Atmel, Microchip, Micron etc.) and the different interfaces. Xilinx libraries also comes bundled with example code.

Lab 10 - Xilinx Libraries

In this lab, the flash library was used to read & write configuration data - which in this particular case was a MAC address.

A new BSP was generated and 'xilisf' (Xilinx In-system and serial flash library) was enabled. For the application, import the provided code.

The second part of the lab explored the provided code which used the xilisf API - which involved using functions to initialize, read, write & erase the contents of the flash. The provided application allows users to store and recall a MAC address over the serial (UART) interface.

Chapter 11 Video - TE Sensor PMOD

At the end of Module 1: Developing Zynq Hardware, we executed a TCL script that added a bunch of hardware to the block diagram - one of which was the AXI - I2C interface. The Avnet example for the TE Sensor PMOD uses this interface that resides in the PL via Xilinx provided drivers. This video briefly went over the AXI-I2C interface, the documentation, the HTU21DHTU21D PMOD and other PMODs that are available.

Lab 11 - TE Sensor PMOD

This lab first explored the documentation for the AXI-I2C interface's peripheral drivers.

Application code is provided, but I did not run it as I did not have access to the PMOD.

The lab instruction document lists out the files and their functions.

Chapter 12 Video - Next Steps

The video went over hardware and software that is available from Xilinx and its partners and how (and where) to get help and support.

It concluded with a review of what was covered in the Developing Zynq Software course.

With this, Module 2 (Developing Zynq Software) of Path to Programmable is complete!

To recap:

Path to Programmable started with hardware: an overview of Zynq, the design tool flow, configuring the PS, creating a custom PL peripheral, using AXI and TCL scripting.

In the software module, we learnt how to use the board support package, the Zynq boot process, SDK project management and how to use Xilinx libraries.

The Path to Programmable courses cover a very small part of the entire Zynq software/hardware ecosystem, but serve as a very good introduction by functioning as a crash course to the Zynq Design flow.

Xilinx documentation covers everything that there is to know, but it is simply too overwhelming to start with. The Path to Programmable course did a very good job of explaining the important details in a concise manner, and skipping (yet referring to) the more complicated parts.