Specifications

28 www.xilinx.com Embedded System Tools Guide (EDK 6.2i)
1-800-255-7778 UG111 (v1.4) January 30, 2004
Chapter 1: Embedded System Tools Architecture
R
Tool Flows
A typical embedded system design project involves the following phases:
x hardware platform creation,
x hardware platform verification (simulation),
x software platform creation,
x software application creation, and
x software verification (debugging).
Xilinx provides tools to assist in all the above design phases. These tools play together with
other, third-party tools such as simulators and text editors that may be used by the
designers.
Hardware Platform Creation
Hardware platform creation is depicted in Figure 1-2.
The hardware platform is defined by the MHS (Microprocessor Hardware Specification)
file (see Chapter 15, “Microprocessor Hardware Specification (MHS)”for more
information). The hardware platform consists of one or more processors and peripherals
connected to the processor buses. Several useful peripherals are usually supplied by
Xilinx, along with the EDK tools. Users can define their own peripherals and include them
in the MHS by following the guidelines in Chapter 14, “Platform Specification Format
(PSF)”. The MHS file is a simple text file and any text editor can be used to create this file.
The XPS tool provides graphical means to create the MHS file.
The MHS file defines the system architecture, peripherals and embedded processors. The
MHS file also defines the connectivity of the system, the address map of each peripheral in
the system and configurable options for each peripheral. Multiple processor instances
connected to one or more peripherals through one or more buses and bridges can also be
specified in the MHS.
The Platform Generator tool (PlatGen) creates the hardware platform using the MHS file as
input. PlatGen creates netlist files in various formats (NGC, EDIF), as well as support files
for downstream tools, and top level HDL wrappers to allow users to add other
components to the automatically generated hardware platform. See Chapter 5, “Platform
Generator,” for more information.
Figure 1-2: Hardware Platform Creation
X10088
HW Spec Ed.
HW Plat. Gen
MHS File
MHS File
XPS, WIZARDS
Platgen
EDIF, NGC,
VHD,V,BMM
XPS