Vitis Utilities

Program Device

Program the FPGA with the bitstream.

Figure 1: Program Device


The following table lists the options available on the Program Device page:

Project
Select the system project you want to use.
Bitstream/PDI File
Specify the bitstream/PDI file
BMM File
Specify the BMM file.
Software Configuration
Specify the program that is initialized at the reset start address for each processor in the Block RAM.
Processor
Name of the processor in the system.
ELF file
Specify the ELF file to initialize.
Program
Click this button to program the FPGA.
Device
By default, the Vitis software platform can detect devices on the JTAG chain and select the device that matches the hardware information in bitstream.
BMM/MMI File
Only for MicroBlaze design. These files store the BRAM name and location information of MicroBlaze. They are generated by Vivado.

Dump/Restore Data File

The Vitis software platform allows you to copy the contents of a binary file to the target memory, or copy binary data from target memory to a file, through JTAG.

Figure 2: Dump/Restore Data File
  1. Select the processor in which you want to dump/restore the data There are two options:
    Dump memory
    For this, select the location in which the dump data file will be saved.
    Restore memory
    For this, select the path of the .bin file.
  2. Give the start address and size (in bytes) and click OK to proceed.

Vitis Shell

Launch a shell terminal in the host with the Vitis settings initialized. This shell can be used for running any Xilinx standalone utility (Bootgen, Program Flash, XSCT, and so on).

Project Export and Import

The Vitis™ IDE provides a simplified method for exporting or importing one or more Vitis IDE projects within your workspace, or import from GIT repositories. You can optionally include associated project build folders.

Export a Vitis Project

When exporting a project, the project is archived in a zip file with all the relevant files needed to import to another workspace.
  1. To export a project, select File > Export from the main menu.
    The Export Vitis Projects page opens, where you select the project or projects in the current workspace to export as shown in the following figure.

  2. To change the name for the archive, edit the Archive File field.
  3. To include the current build configurations, enable Include build folders at the bottom of the window.
    TIP: This can significantly increase the size of the archive, but might be necessary in some cases.
  4. To create the archive with your selected files, click OK to create the archive.

The selected Vitis IDE projects are archived in the specified file and location, and can be imported into the Vitis IDE under a different workspace, on a different computer, by a different user.

Import a Vitis Project

  1. To import a project, select File > Import from the top menu.

    This opens the Import Projects page to select the import file type. There are two types of files you can select to import:

    Vitis project exported zip files
    Lets you import projects previously exported from the Vitis IDE as discussed in Export a Vitis Project.
    Eclipse workspace or zip file
    Lets you import projects from another Vitis IDE workspace.
    Import projects from Git
    Lets you import projects from either a local previously cloned Git repository, or from a specified Git URL, as described in the next topic.
  2. The following figure shows the page that is opened when you select Eclipse workspace or zip file and click Next.

  3. For Select root directory, point to a workspace for the Vitis IDE, and specify the following options as needed:
    Search for nested projects
    Looks for projects inside other projects in the workspace.
    Copy projects into workspace
    Creates a physical copy of the project in the current open workspace.
    Close newly created imported projects upon completion
    Closes the projects in the open workspace after they are created.
  4. Click Finish to import the projects into the open workspace in the Vitis IDE.

Generating Device Tree

The Vitis IDE can integrate device-tree-generator as a domain in the platform. It parses the information in XSA and generate device tree. Device-tree-generator is an open-source project hosted on Xilinx GitHub. Settings of device-tree-generator can be modified in Vitis IDE. The Vitis IDE can generate device trees. To generate a device tree, follow these steps:

  1. Select Xilinx > Repositories.
  2. Click New.
  3. Provide the local path for the device tree generator, which can be downloaded from GitHub.
  4. Select Xilinx > Generate Device Tree to open the Device Tree Generator.
  5. Provide the hardware specification file and the output directory (the output will be created here).

    You can change the settings for device tree blob (DTB) using the Modify Device Tree settings. The device tree path displays after successful generation.