One Hour A Day

In this post we will leverage our basic Petalinux build to install PYNQ on our EBAZ4205 evaluation board. PYNQ is a framework being developed by Xilinx to interface all of a Zynq boards' capabilities (i.e. custom logic, processing, and peripherals) via a Python environment. It is enabled thanks to the Zynq's unique feature compared to other FPGAs, in which the logic fabric (PL) is actually programmed by the processor (PS) on boot. As a result, running PYNQ enables to use custom logic without the need of an external JTAG programmer . References : [1]  PYNQ for Cora-Z7-07S  and  GitHub PYNQ-Cora-Z7-07S . Great walkthrough. I modified it to apply to EBAZ4205 board. [2] Quick Porting of PYNQ . A general purpose introduction to PYNQ porting. Some useful replies. [3]  Load a PYNQ 2.5 bitstream during power-up . The last nail in the coffin: how to make ethernet work. Pre-requisites : Software tools install...

In order to leverage the capabilities of the EBAZ4205 I want it to run Linux. There are a couple of guides online which didn't work for me, because I have the board variant without a Y3 crystal at the ethernet IC. I'm also not an experienced FPGA developer, so some of the implicit steps were non-trivial for me at all. This was an excellent opportunity to pick up the glove and learn how to build Petalinux myself. So lets get to work! This guide uses 2019.1 toolchain, for two main reasons: It is the last version before Xilinx's migration to Vitis so there is more data online from other users. While the hardware flow is identical to the Vivado 2020.X editions, the Petalinux u-boot build process is different (see  Tux Engineering, Inc. - Home ), and has resulted errors for me, which I currently don't know how to solve. Refences The full writeup puts together bits and pieces are from the following sources: [1]  zynq[1] 矿板helloworld | hhuysqt  (using Google-Translate) [2] ...

Once I noticed that cheap Zynq modules can be had for a few dollars I immediately bought one, then started asking questions. Apparently, the first modules in circulation were more populated than the later ones: They have optocouplers and a crystal driving the network interface. The crystal-less modules are cheaper, but I had trouble evaluating and leveraging my Zync-board capabilities. The following posts will detail my steps to install Petalinux OS and boot it from SD card, and and then to install and run PYNQ. This enables to interface the FPGA logic from python code running on the Zynq processor, without needing to use a JTAG programmer . Order of posts Introduction . Board definitions. Build and install  Petalinux 2019.1 on crystal-less EBAZ4205 module. Build and install  PYNQ 2.5.4 on crystal-less EBAZ4205 module. PYNQ overlay example  for verification of functionality. References (for part #1) [1]  GitHub - xjtuecho/EBAZ4205: A 5$ Xilinx ZYNQ development boa...