University of Toronto ECE532 Digital Hardware Module m01 Building a MicroBlaze System in XPS Version for EDK 10 1 03 as of January 7 2009 Acknowledgement This module is derived from a Xilinx lab given at the University of Toronto EDK workshop in November 2003 Many thanks to Xilinx for allowing us to use and modify their material Goals Use Xilinx tools to build and debug a basic MicroBlaze system This will consist of a MicroBlaze processor memory and a UART Understand basic concepts of the Xilinx Embedded Development Kit EDK which includes tools such as Xilinx Platform Studio XPS and processor IP Explore some concepts used when programming in an embedded processor environment such as where a program is loaded how it is loaded what gets added to it runtimes etc and how to interact with it Use some software debugging tools in an embedded processor environment Get an idea of how to find various useful documentation Requirements You ll need access to The Xilinx EDK 10 1 01k and ISE 10 1 01k software with IP Update 3 Xilinx XUP Virtex II Pro Development System About 15MB of disk space for the project files at least 12MB plus some to spare Preparation You should have a quick look at the following documents There are links from the UofT EDK page to the Xilinx site for the Xilinx documents and the link for the Training Lecture is there as well see Tools Documentation Resources and Access You can also find the Xilinx documents in your EDK install directory Some are online at Xilinx but others are only available in your installation If you are running XPS already you can use the menu link Help EDK Online Documentation On some Linux installations this menu entry does not start the browser You can also find the documentation under XILINX EDK doc usenglish index htm Note Some of the activity in this module does not require hardware and can be done later such as examining various files If time is running short it is best to leave these steps till later and focus on the steps that actually use the hardware The steps in this module assume you are running it in the Microprocessor lab on the PCs 1 University of Toronto ECE532 Digital Hardware Module m01 Building a MicroBlaze System in XPS Background The Base System Builder BSB a wizard in XPS can help you build your first system quickly and easily XPS uses the Xilinx Integrated Software Environment ISE tools to synthesize place and route the hardware design GNU tools are provided in the EDK and are used within XPS to build the software for the embedded system Setup With the Xilinx XUP Virtex II Pro Development System your kit should include Xilinx XUP Virtex II Pro Development System Board Documentation and driver CD Digilent VDEC1 video decoder board USB A B Cable USB to RS 232 adapter cable AC adapter Step by step Setting up the Hardware Connections For the Xilinx XUP Virtex II Pro Development System Board Please be very careful when setting up the hardware so as not to break the connectors Do not power on the board until a TA has verified your hardware setup If you are using the Xilinx Virtex II Multimedia Board consult the last subsubsection 1 Place the development board on the table such that you can read the Xilinx insignia in the bottom right hand corner 2 Connect the USB cable to the socket on the right side of the board towards the upper edge This provides the JTAG connection that is used for downloading FPGA configurations and for debugging 3 Connect the other end of the USB cable to the PC 4 At the top left hand corner of the Ultragizmo board there are two grey cables labeled CON and D Unplug the CON cable and connect it to the serial cable adapter Plug the other end of the serial cable into the connector located at the bottom right hand corner of the board towards the lower edge This will be used for your UART connection Note you need two connections to your board to do this lab First you need a programming connection for configuring the FPGA This is done using JTAG over either the Parallel Cable IV or the USB connection to the XUPV2P board Second you need a communications connection for interacting with the designs you instantiate on the FPGA For instance the standard input and standard output of the MicroBlaze in most of your designs will be connected to the serial port on the XUPV2P board In other words printf and scanf will run over the serial port It s for this connection that you need the serial cable connected to the CON port 5 Plug one end of the power supply into the power bar and the other into the jack located in the top left hand corner just above the power switch 2 University of Toronto ECE532 Digital Hardware Module m01 Building a MicroBlaze System in XPS 6 Check that the DIP switches on the board are configured for JTAG programming Leaf through Xilinx University Program Virtex II Pro Development System Hardware Reference Manual on the XUPV2P CD or online if you haven t already look for the section Configuring the FPGA 7 Get a TA to check your connections You can then turn on the power switch ON and OFF are marked The green power LEDs along the top edge of the board should be illuminated as should be the green JTAG Config LED on the right side of the board A red System ACE Error LED will also be flashing since the System ACE controller failed to load a configuration from a Compact Flash CF card When you turn on your board the PC it s connected to will detect a new USB device and may require that you install a driver for that device Using XPS Base System Builder 8 Create a directory for your modules in your home directory W in the ECE labs Note Make sure that the path to your project directory has no spaces W ece532 is probably a good choice In this directory you should unzip the m01 zip file available from the UofT EDK page You should now have a W ece532 lab1 directory in which you ll create your project for this module 9 Start XPS by going to Start Programs Xilinx ISE Design Suite 10 1 EDK Xilinx Platform Studio 10 Once Xilinx Platform Studio has opened a window should appear that describes several methods of loading a project Select Base System Builder Wizard and click OK The Base System Builder is a wizard that helps minimize the effort required to generate a system by building the necessary data files for XPS 11 The Create New XPS Project Using BSB Wizard dialog box is displayed Browse to the directory named lab1 that you unzipped into your project work area and select it in the dialog box Click Open on the dialog