Avnet Ultra96 Dev Board

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About

Ultra96™ is an ARM-based, Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+™ MPSoC development board based on the Linaro 96Boards specification.

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The 96Boards’ specifications are open and define a standard board layout for development platforms that can be used by software application, hardware device, kernel, and other system software developers.Ultra96 represents a unique position in the 96Boards community with a wide range of potential peripherals and acceleration engines in the programmable logic that is not available from other offerings.

 

Ultra96 boots from the provided Delkin 16 GB MicroSD card, pre-loaded with PetaLinux. Engineers have options of connecting to Ultra96 through a Webserver using integrated wireless access point capability or to use the provided PetaLinux desktop environment which can be viewed on the integrated Mini DisplayPort video output. Multiple application examples and on-board development options are provided as examples.

 

Ultra96 provides four user-controllable LEDs. Engineers may also interact with the board through the 96Boards compatible low-speed and high-speed expansion connectors by adding peripheral accessories such as those included in Seed Studio’s Grove Starter Kit for 96Boards.

 

Micron LPDDR4 memory provides 2 GB of RAM in a 512M x 32 configuration. Wireless options include 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 (provides both Bluetooth Classic and Low Energy (BLE)). UARTs are accessible on a header as well as through the expansion connector. JTAG is available through a header (external USB-JTAG required). I2C is available through the expansion connector.

 

Ultra96 provides one upstream (device) and two downstream (host) USB 3.0 connections. A USB 2.0 downstream (host) interface is provided on the high speed expansion bus. Two Microchip USB3320 USB 2.0 ULPI Transceivers and one Microchip USB5744 4-Port SS/HS USB Controller Hub are specified. The integrated power supply generates all on-board voltages from an external 12V supply (available as an accessory).

 

FEATURES

  • Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZU3EG A484
  • Micron 2 GB (512M x32) LPDDR4 Memory
  • Delkin 16 GB MicroSD card + adapter
  • Pre-loaded with PetaLinux environment
  • Wi-Fi / Bluetooth
  • Mini DisplayPort (MiniDP or mDP)
  • 1x USB 3.0 Type Micro-B upstream port
  • 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0 Type A downstream ports
  • 40-pin 96Boards Low-speed expansion header
  • 60-pin 96Boards High speed expansion header
  • 85mm x 54mm form factor
  • Linaro 96Boards Consumer Edition compatible

 

CONTENTS

  • Ultra96 development board
  • 16 GB pre-loaded MicroSD card + adapter
  • Voucher for SDSoC license from Xilinx
  • Quick-start instruction card
  • External 12V @ 2.0A power supply (provided by element14)
  • USB-to-JTAG/UART pod (provided by element14)
Important Dates

Enrollment Begin: Aug 21 1018

Enrollment Ends: Oct 24 2018

RoadTesters Selected: Oct 29 2018

Product Shipped: Oct 30 2018

RoadTesting Begins: Nov 6 2018

Reminder/Update Email: Dec 6 2018*

Submit Reviews By: Jan 6 2019*

*The element14 RoadTest Staff will send this reminder/update email.

**If a RoadTester is unable to meet the deadline, please notify the RoadTest Program Lead, , as soon as possible before the deadline.

RoadTesters

T&Cs

Avnet Ultra96 Dev Board

RoadTest

Terms and Conditions

These are the terms and conditions which govern the Avnet Ultra96 Dev Board RoadTest contest. This Contest requires participants to submit an application indicating their previous experience with this type of equipment/component, information on what they would do to test the equipment/component, and the applicant’s desire to post a thorough review of their experience with images, photos, or other supplemental materials. Participants will be required to meet the Conditions for Participation.  The winners of this RoadTest will receive the item(s) listed below. RoadTest Reviews are due no later than 60 days after the receipt of the item(s). No other prizes are offered.

The Principal terms of the Competition:

The following words and phrases are used in these terms and conditions and have the meanings given to them below.

Avnet Ultra96 Dev Board

(RoadTest or Contest)

Key dates:

Applications Close: midnight (GMT) on Oct 24 2018

Announcement of Winner (estimated): Oct 26 2018

Prize: Avnet Ultra96 Dev Board

Additional Prizes: none

Competition Site: https://www.element14.com/community/groups/roadtest?ICID=menubar_resources_roadtest

Site or element14 Community: www.element14.com/community

Judges: members of the element14 community team chosen at the Organiser’s discretion.

Judging Criteria, All of the following which will have equal weighting:

· Demonstrated competence with the technologies including links or descriptions of past projects

· Qualifications as indicated by current job role and/or schooling/vocational training;

· A thorough description of how the prize would be tested;

· Likelihood that the Applicant will blog about the prize and provide a review on element14.com;

· Originality;

· Innovation.

Organiser: Premier Farnell plc (registered in England and Wales under company number 876412) whose registered office is at Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds, UK

Conditions for Qualification: in addition to meeting the requirements of these terms, all persons applying to take part in the Contest (each one an Applicant) must:

· Provide a RoadTest application describing what he/she would do if awarded the Prize including similar previous projects, product experience and qualifications

Terms: these terms and conditions which govern the Competition and to which the Organiser reserves the right to make changes from time to time and the latest version of these Terms from time to time will be posted to the Site.

  1. Eligibility
  2. Applications:
  3. Selecting Winners:
  4. Liability:
  5. General:

1.1 Save as set out in these Terms, the Contest is open to any natural or legal person, firm or company or group of natural persons or unincorporated body.

1.2 All Applicants must be aged at least 18 at the time of their application.

1.3 Applicants must not enter the RoadTest if doing so or taking part may:

1.3.1 cause the Organiser and/or themselves to be in breach of any agreement (including but not limited to any contract of employment) to which they are a party or in breach of any law, regulation or rule having the force of law to which the Organiser or the Applicant may be subject or any policy of the Organiser or the Sponsor;

1.3.2 Require the Organiser to obtain any licence, authorisation or permission to deal with the Applicant; or

1.3.3 Be in breach of any policy or practice of their employer. Some employers prohibit or restrict their employees from taking part in competitions such as these or receiving prizes under them and the Organiser respects those policies and practices.

The Organiser reserves the right to disqualify any Application made in breach of these Terms and to reject any Application which it reasonably believes may be or become in breach. The Organiser reserves the right to require evidence in such form as the Organiser may reasonably require of any Applicant’s compliance with any of these Terms and to disqualify any Applicant or Participant who cannot provide such evidence reasonably promptly.

1.4 Multiple applications are not permitted.

1.5 Applications may not be submitted by an agent whether acting on behalf of an undisclosed principal or otherwise.

1.6 The Contest is NOT open to:

1.6.1 Any person or entity who is a resident or national of any country which is subject to sanctions, embargoes or national trade restrictions of the United States of America, the European Union or the United Kingdom;

1.6.2 Any employee, director, member, shareholder (as appropriate) or any of their direct families (parents, siblings, spouse, partner, children) (“Direct Families”) of the Organiser and Sponsors; or

2.1 Each Applicant must fully complete and submit a RoadTest Application by the Application Close.

2.2 By submitting a Registration Form, each Applicant:

2.2.1 Authorises the Organiser to use his or her personal data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) for the purposes of running and promoting the RoadTest;

2.2.2 Authorises the Organizer to copy, reproduce and publish their application should they be accepted as a Participant;

2.2.3 Will be deemed to have read, accepted and agree to be bound by these Terms. Applicants are advised to print and keep safe these Terms;

2.2.4 Authorises the Organiser to copy, reproduce and use the Application and/or Review for the purposes of the RoadTest and as otherwise contemplated by these Terms. The Organiser will not be responsible for any inaccuracy, error or omission contained in any reproduction or use of the Project Blogs.

2.2.5 Licenses the Organiser to use the intellectual property in the Project (IP) for the purposes of this Contest. As between the Applicant and the Organiser the IP remains owned by the Applicant.

2.2.6 Grants the Organiser the right to use his or her likeness, photographs, logos, trademarks, audio or video recordings without restriction for the purposes of Contest or the promotion of it or the Site;

2.2.7 Agrees to participate positively in all publicity surrounding the Contest;

2.2.8 Agrees to be responsible for all expenses and costs incurred by him or her in preparing for, entering and participating in the Contest (save for any expenses expressly agreed by the Organiser to be borne by it in these Terms);

2.2.9 Confirms that he or she owns all IP used in his or her application or Project or Blogs and indemnifies the Organiser from any claim by a third party that use of any material provided by an Applicant to the Organiser infringes the intellectual property rights of any third party;

2.2.10 Agrees not to act in any way or fail to act in any way or be associated with any cause or group which would have a negative impact on the reputation of the Organiser and/or the RoadTest.

2.3 All applications submitted to this RoadTest must meet the following criteria:

2.3.1 Applicants must be the author, creator and owner of the proposed review idea. Applicants must not submit someone else’s idea;

2.3.2 The proposed application must be reasonably achievable by the within the time constraints of the Contest;

2.3.3 Applications must not include or propose any of the following, the inclusion of which shall render any proposed application ineligible:

(a) Applications which relate to socially taboo topics, such as illicit drug use or sexual gratification;

(b) Applications that are or could reasonably be considered to be illegal, immoral, discriminatory or offensive as determined by the Organiser;

(c) Applications in relation to them which if accepted would infringe or breach any of the policies or terms of access or use of the Site.

2.4 No Application may contain any of the hazardous substances identified by Article 4 of Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament on the Restrictions on the Use of Substances in Electronic and Electrical Equipment ("the Directive") or the use of such hazardous substances in the in any such Project must not exceed the maximum concentration values set out in the Directive.

3.1 Winners will be selected by the Organiser on the basis of the quality of his or her application and its adherence to these Terms.

3.2 The total number of Winners selected will be at least the minimum number set out above but the actual number is at the sole discretion of the Organizer and/or the Sponsor, if applicable.

3.3 The Organiser will use all reasonable efforts to announce the Winners via an update to the RoadTest page by the date listed above.

3.4 Winners agree to take part in all publicity which the Organiser or the Sponsor wishes to use to promote the RoadTest, the Products featured or other Contests with which the Organiser may be connected from time to time.

3.5 Details of the Winners may also be published in the media.

3.6 Winners are responsible for all applicable taxes, duties or other charges payable in relation to any prize.

3.7

4.1 The Organiser hereby excludes all and any Liability arising out of the Contest or the acceptance, use, quality, condition, suitability or performance of any Prize, even where that Liability may arise from the Organiser’s negligence.

4.2 Nothing in these Terms will affect any Liability of the Organiser for death or personal injury arising from its negligence, for breach of Part II of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (in the event that any entrant is entitled to claim rights under the Consumer Protection Act 1987) or for any matter in relation to which it would be illegal for the Organiser to exclude or to attempt to exclude its Liability.

4.3 Subject to 4.2, neither the Organiser, any parent company nor any subsidiary of the Organiser or such parent company or any of their directors, officers and employees (together referred to in these terms and the ‘Associates’) makes any guarantee, warranty or representation of any kind, express or implied, with respect to this Competition or the Prizes potentially available under it. Neither the Organiser nor any of its Associates shall be responsible for any Liability that may arise out of or in connection with person’s participation in this Competition, the claiming, redemption or value of any prizes under it, the use or enjoyment of such prizes or any events or circumstances arising out of or in connection with any of them. Any implied warranties of condition, merchantability or suitability or fitness for purpose of any of them are hereby expressly excluded. Wherever used in these Terms, ‘Liability’ shall mean any and all costs, expenses, claims, damages, actions, proceedings, demands, losses and other liabilities (including legal fees and costs on a full indemnity basis) arising directly or indirectly out of or in connection with the matter concerned.

5.1 The RoadTest is organised and sponsored by the Organiser. The Organiser reserves the right to delegate all or any of its powers, rights and obligations arising in relation to the RoadTest to any Associate and certain such rights and powers are assumed by the Organiser on behalf of itself and each Associate. Reference to “Organiser” shall be deemed to include reference to each Associate.

5.2 The RoadTest may be terminated at any time if there are, in the sole opinion of the Organiser, an insufficient number of entries, or if the Applications are not of an appropriate standard for a competition of this nature. The Organiser has the right to cancel or suspend the RoadTest at any time due to circumstances outside its reasonable control.

5.3 The Organiser shall have the sole discretion to disqualify (without correspondence or right of appeal) any Applicant it considers to be adversely affecting the process or the operation of the RoadTest or to be in breach of these Terms or to be acting in a disruptive manner or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other Applicant or Participant.

5.4 The Organiser has the right to amend or add to these Terms from time to time. Revised Terms and Conditions will be posted on the Contest Site and it is a condition of entry to the RoadTest that Applicants agree to comply with these Terms and, if appropriate, such Terms as amended from time to time.

5.5 Headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation or construction of these Terms and Conditions.

5.6 These Terms and the operation of the Contest shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English Law and any claim or matter arising under these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

RoadTest Reviews
Comments
Anonymous
  • Hi Josh, thanks for your suggestions.

    There was no application running prior to this attempt.

    I power cycled both the Ultra96 and the JTAG POD prior to attempting to use the debugger.

    The problem persists.

    The Zedboard forum does not allow uploading files with a post which means the logfile could not be easily included, so I chose not to publish this problem there.   This has been published to the Xilinx forum.

    Thanks again, I look forward to any other suggestions you may have.

    Clfff

  • Any update on project build selections?

     

    -Nitin

  • Hi Cliff,

     

    Have you every gotten the system debugger to work?

     

    Is this after running an application, and then attempting to rerun the application?

     

    I have found that when using the Ultra96 in conjunction with the JTAG Pod, I must power cycle both boards to run an application a second time.

     

    Also if I may suggest also post any questions you may have at the Zedboard.org Ultra96 support forum along with the Xilinx forum. Ultra96 Hardware Design | Zedboard

     

    Thanks!

    Josh

  • I am not able to run the hardware (system debugger) using the instructions located here: http://ultra96.org/sites/default/files/design/02_Ultra96_Vivado_Hello_World_2018_2_01.zip

    I have posted a message in the Xilinx user forums here: https://forums.xilinx.com/t5/Embedded-Development-Tools/Debugger-in-2018-2-2-SDK-fails-with-memory-read-error/m-p/912942…

    The log file uploaded to the message has the error codes and other relevant information.

    I would appreciate any assistance with running the system debugger.

    Thanks

  •  

     

    To all Roadtesters,

     

    If you have a problem (HW or SW) or if you feel you have a faulty part, the first thing you should do is POST HERE in the comments section a detailed account of your problem. This comments section functions as a de facto support community. Other members, roadtesters or tech support from Avnet often will provide assistance.

     

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

  • Vladimir.

     

    Yes, the roadtest review form has a limitation there. However, what people do is post the review and write additional blogs. then, they link the blog to the roadtest.

     

    This is one example:

     

    TI Ultrasonic Sensing RoadTest - Review

  • I was planning to write intermediate reports, however as far as I can see from the published reviews there is no such practice. I guess that makes sense for a structured review process where every reviewer produces one final document. The reviews are great by the way!

     

    Anyway I can't resist sharing my first impressions of the board. I'm quite impressed by the hardware but Vivado software is a burden. Vivado+SDSoC takes about 60GB on Linux. That's bigger than my entire Linux root partition! I had to buy an external drive just to fit Vivado. I think the way Xilinx develops their tools doesn't scale very well. Xilinx ISE was tolerably big at around 18GB. Vivado already feels more like a different OS that is emulated on the host.

     

    I personally like Lattice Diamond more than Vivado. It's much smaller and more unified.

     

    Some related reading I've done over the weekend:

    - https://www.hackster.io/adam-taylor/accelerating-your-ultra96-developments-806a72

    - https://www.hackster.io/adam-taylor/two-methods-of-building-petalinux-for-the-ultra96-77c8e0

    - https://medium.com/@wizofe/rsoc-porting-redox-to-arm-aarch64-0x02-c566ee22f377

     

    I'm not sure whether I'm going to port the latter note to Ultra96 but it gave me the confidence that Rust cross-compilation for aarch64 is achievable. So I will definitely try it with PetaLinux.

  • Yes I know you are busy building this community and appreciate the hard work you put in. So my tiny little help.

  • Yes. thanks.  Just trying to do too many things at once.

     

    Randall

  • Congratulations selected road testers. Looking forward to read your reviews. Hope at least one of you would have proposed to use the Machine Learning(ML) capability of this board.

  •   wrote:

     

    Submit Reviews By: Jan 6 2018*

     

    Shouldn’t the date be Jan 6 2019?

  • To any new roadtester....

     

    If this is the first time you are roadtesting, I would suggest that you review some of our reviews. They are very detailed and some are profound and compelling.

     

    Ask any of the people who have been roadtesters, and they will tell you I take my roadtest reviews seriously. While I will never tell you what to say or do in a review, I'd like it to be as objective as possible. If you experience some hiccups along the way, put it in the review. If you thought the documentation was helfpful or it needed some work, tell everyone.

     

    If something gets damaged in shipment, please tell me.

     

    If you have a technical problem, tell everyone by making a comment here. This comments section is a defacto support community.

     

    You are given 60 days from receipt of the product to write the review on element14.

     

    Sincerely,

     

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

     

    nixiefairy

    volodya

    cmelement14

    dimiterk

    dcsoutherner

  • To All Roadtesters....

     

    Re: Posting your Review

     

    Roadtest reviews are published on element14. Personal blogs or other sites or github or any of the other project posting sites do not count.

     

    Reviews MUST be published in the official roadtest review form which is inidcated by a half-yellow star icon: image

     

    Reviews are not posted in blogs, discussions, your personal element14 blog.

     

    Your account has been enabled to see the form when I approve as an official roadtester. by logging into element14 when you are ready to write the review you will see the Review button.

     

    Here is how you located the official roadtest review form:

    How To Locate the Official RoadTest Review Form

     

    I check the reviews constantly. I have to report back to the sponsor on the reviews, their status, progress, etc.

     

    You will receive regular follow up calls by my assistant.

     

     

    nixiefairy

    volodya

    cmelement14

    dimiterk

    dcsoutherner

  • Important Dates Update

     

    Enrollment Begin: Aug 21 1018

    Enrollment Ends: Oct 24 2018

    RoadTesters Selected: Oct 29 2018

    Product Shipped: Oct 30 2018

    RoadTesting Begins: Nov 6 2018

    Reminder/Update Email: Dec 6 2018*

    Submit Reviews By: Jan 6 2019*

    *The element14 RoadTest Staff will send this reminder/update email.

    **If a RoadTester is unable to meet the deadline, please notify the RoadTest Program Lead, , as soon as possible before the deadline.

     

     

     

    nixiefairy

    volodya

    cmelement14

    dimiterk

    dcsoutherner

  • The following applicants have been selected as official roadtesters:

     

    nixiefairy

    volodya

    cmelement14

    dimiterk

    dcsoutherner

  • you are right, the video codec is only available on the more pricey ZCU104 eval kit from Xilinx itself

  • To All Applicants,

     

     

    We have selected the official roadtesters, which I will post shortly.

     

    NEWS: I also was given an extra 2 ultra96s. For these 2 boards, tI will select people to build a project, not just roadtest the product. So, they will be chosen based on having proposed a project in their application.

     

    But I wanted to say something about the applications. I went though the applications three times. They broke down into:

     

    • Makers who only talked about Raspberry Pi or Arduino. They were not selected because I didn't think they knew what the U96 was.
    • The single sentence applicants who didn't say much--not serious applications.
    • The processor engineers who had a lot of experience but did not have heterogeneous SoC experience. Some of them had never used the Vivado Design Suite. Despite that, some of these were truly great applications.
    • This group had deep experience in FPGA or heterogeneous SoCs. Some had long time Zynq experience. Some proposed some compelling projects. Here's one: "build a smart camera image which uses machine learning . The project will consist of a parallel camera OV7670 interfaced with the ZYNQ Ultrascale on the 96Board. The video feed will be output through the HDMI. The video stream will also be piped through a 4 layer CNN network."

     

    My decision making process...

     

    The question I had to ask myself when recommending people was: Could someone who had no heterogeneous SoC experience get a handle on the Ultra+ MPSoC in less than 60 days and write a detailed review? I really thought about it a lot. I'm sure some people could, so it is a debatable question. It put me in a reaI quandry. But I didn't want someone who had no experience at all to be overwhelmed or frustrated if they did get the Ultra96. I had this happen to me recently and the person just sent back the product, paying for the shipping himself. After thinking about it for most of the week, I did select someone who did not have a lot of experience but had some familiarity with the UltraScale+. The others I recommended wrote very convincing applications and are basically FPGA engineers in their day jobs.

     

    This is the first thing I have done on the Ultra96. There will be more to come. So, I want to thank everyone who applied.

     

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

  • Update on selection.

     

    Sorry for the delay in selecting the finalists.

     

    Most of the applicants did not specify their experience in programmable logic devices (100+).

     

    But I now have it down to 14 applicants.

     

    Finally, I have been given 2 extra boards. The 2 extra boards will be specifically for projects; the other 5 will be the roadtest.

     

    I will announce the winners tomorrow.

     

    Randall Scasny

    RoadTest Program Manager

  • i am actually interested with the capability with the MPSOC on the ultra96 especially its performance

    on video based machine learning or deep learning

     

    i got a chance to see it in action at a local Xilinx event. Although the speed is mentioned as 69fps,

    the actual video output (with me inside image) is laggy at around 10fps. not sure what is wrong...

     

    image

  • It is really incredible how powerful this board is according to the specs. Also, what a fantastic design - love that it has got lots of connections for the high and low speed interfaces, and is ready-to-use with custom heatsinking already fitted! And all external interfaces are on one side, so perfect for fitting into a chassis.