Specifications

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Tool Flows
R
Note: After running PlatGen, FPGA implementation tools (ISE) are run to complete the
implementation of the hardware. Typically, XPS spawns off the ProjNav front end for the
implementation tools, allowing full control over the implementation. See ISE documentation for more
info on the ISE tools. At the end of the ISE flow, a bitstream is generated to configure the FPGA. This
bitstream includes initialization information for BRAM memories on the FPGA chip. If user code or
data is required to be placed on these memories at startup time, the Data2MEM tool in the ISE toolset
is used to update the bitstream with code/data information obtained from the user’s executable files,
which are generated at the end of the “Software Application Creation and Verification” flow.
Verification Platform Creation
The verification platform is based on the hardware platform. The verification specification
allows the user to specify a simulation model for each processor, peripheral or other
module in the hardware platform. The MHS file is processed by the Simgen tool to create
simulation files (VHDL, Verilog or various compiled models) along with some command
files for specific simulators supported by the tool. See Chapter 6, “Simulation Model
Generator” for more information. As in the case of the hardware platform, these
simulation files may be edited by the user to add other components to the automatically
generated verification platform. The entire process of generating the verification platform
is depicted in Figure 1-3. If the software application that runs on the hardware platform is
available in executable format, it can be used to initialize memories in the verification
platform. Details of this process are provided in later chapters.
Software Platform Creation
The software platform is defined by the MSS (Microprocessor Software Specification) file
(see Chapter 19, “Microprocessor Software Specification (MSS)” for more information).
The MSS file defines driver and library customization parameters for peripherals,
processor customization parameters, standard input/output devices, interrupt handler
routines, and other related software features. The MSS file is a simple text file and any text
editor can be used to create this file. The XPS tool (see Chapter 2, “Xilinx Platform Studio
(XPS)” for more information) provides a graphical user interface for creating the MSS file.
The MSS file is an input to the Library Generator tool (LibGen) for customization of
drivers, libraries and interrupt handlers. See Chapter 7, “Library Generator” for more
information. The entire process of creating the software platform is shown in Figure 1-4.
Figure 1-3: Verification Platform
X10089
Sim Spec Ed.
Sim Plat. Gen
MHS File
MHS, .elf
XPS GUI
Simgen
.vhd, .v for sim
XPS