What’s New in Xilinx SDK (Earlier Releases)

• Spartan-7 and Atrix-7 devices are now fully supported.
• The System Performance Monitor is updated to support the Zynq UltraScale+ devices.
• A53 32-bit BSP has hard floating point support.
• System Debugger now supports MDM connected using a BSCAN switch. You can debug a MicroBlaze connected to MDM using a BSCAN switch.

General

• Ability to set custom JTAG frequency

• Xen OS aware debug
  • Visualize hypervisor specific information
  • Abillity to debug Xen components
• Linker script enhancements
  • Fixed issues related to changing memory sections name
  • Linker script display now synchronizes with linker script changes
  • Ability to add new data sections
• Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC support enhancements
  • Ability to create application for the Hypervisor guest
  • Added eMMC flash support
• XSCT enhancements
  • Added new changebsp command
  • Added support for Serial Vector Format (SVF) for A53 processors
• Eclipse core IDE upgraded to Neon (version 4.6)
• Compiler tool chain
  • Floating point support for R5 compiler
  • Compiler for A9, A53 and MicroBlaze™ upgraded to 6.2 version
  • MicroBlaze Big endian Linux toolchain removed
• Xil_Kernel is deprecated
• Ease of use enhancements and bug fixes

• This release is focused on quality. A number of quality related issues were addressed in this release

• New updatehw command-line option added to the XSCT Commands chapter

• Updated the rst command-line option

• Support Shared library (Linux only) and Static library creation.
• Ability to create new, edit or remove existing cross trigger breakpoints.
• All new Xilinx® Software Command-Line (XSCT) console. No references to XMD.
• Ability to drag-and-drop hardware design file (HDF/XML) to generate hardware platform.
• Support standalone application debug using System Debugger on QEMU.
• Ability to interact with the program running on QEMU using the QEMU console.
• Support source-level debug in XSDB.
• Availability of Open CV libraries ARM® v7 and ARM v8.
• Support security configuration exported from PCW.
• Added support for ARMCC as a useable third party compiler.
• Availability of ZCU102 1.0 silicon version based hardware design file (HDF) as a part of Xilinx SDK templates.

• Support non-intrusive (hardware-based) profiling for MicroBlaze™ processors.
• Ability to collect and view FreeRTOS trace events.

• Upgraded GCC toolchain version to 5.2.

General

The following updates were made in SDK 2016.2:

• This release is focused on quality. A number of quality related issues were addressed in this release.

• Linux OS Aware Debug
  • Processes on Linux Kernel
  • Threads in each process
  • Call stack for each thread
• Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC Support Enhancements
  • Linux application debugging using TCF agent for A53
  • GUI support for Bootgen
  • Cross Triggering support through XSDB
  • SPM design for PS – PL interface performance and A53 performance
  • Flash Support
• XSCT Enhancements
  • No group name prefix for SDK/XSDB commands
  • No need of mixing hsi and XSCT command for complete flow
  • PetaLinux commands over XSCT shell
  • Compiler options settings from XSCT
• XSDB Enhancements
  • Source level debugging
  • gprof support
• Compiler Tool chain
  • Hard float support for A9 compiler
  • Linaro Compiler for A9, A53 and R5 version 4.9.x
  • MB compiler upgraded to 5.2 version
  • Default toolchain for A9 is Linaro
• XMD is deprecated.
• Ease of use enhancements and bug fixes

• This release is focused on quality. A number of quality related issues were addressed in this release.
• Added support for filtering application templates based on the processor and OS
• Added new commands in XSCT (get_projects, delete_projects, set_build_config, and get_build_config).
• Updated XSCT command, import_sources, to allow for inclusion of the linker script in the import
• Added new option to xsdb memmap command to relocate the address map of the program sections for self-relocating code.
• Delivered new BETA hardware template for Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC ZCU102 development board.

• Xilinx Software Development Kit (XSDK) - An Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) for creating, debugging, optimizing, and downloading software applications for Xilinx processors.
• Xilinx Software Command-Line Tool (XSCT) -An unified scriptable interface for creating, building, and debugging software applications, creating bootable images, programming FPGA and writing flash devices.

In both the installation modes, you can deselect the ARM® Cortex™-A53 and ARM® Cortex™ R5 compilers.

• Support for MultiBD designs from Vivado
• Source Control support in SDK : Git plug-in integration
• TCF agent for MicroBlaze allowing Linux application debug using System Debugger
• Soft IP register view in debugging view
  • GPIO, CAN and I2C
• Improved performance views using the Trace Compass Framework
  • More configurable control (interface name display, session configuration)
  • Tool tips
  • Selectable graph display
• Offline Trace Support
• SDK New Terminal

• Quick access to OS and library documentation
• Improved SDK driver API documentation
• Content reorganization

General

The following updates were made in SDK 2015.2:

• This release is focused on quality. A number of bugs were fixed in this release.

• Improved Help homepage for usability and branding standards.
• All new Xilinx® Software Command-Line tool. No references to XSDB/HSI/SDK batchmode.
• Ability to select the cable-type and device, from various available multiple cable-types and devices, connected to the host.
• Support RSA keys authentication key generation from bootgen command-line.

• Support extended for multiple APM.
• Supports GP ports and internal IP ports in Zynq® designs.
• Added System Performance Modeling reference designs for ZC706 template.

• Upgraded GCC toolchain version to 4.9.2 for MicroBlaze™.
• Upgraded ARM® Cortex™-A9 GCC version to 4.9.1.

• Added support for SPI Flash Programming for Non-Zynq devices.
• Added support for additional flash parts for both BPI and SPI Flash Memory.