Subsystem Assembly and Verification on Hardware - 2020.2 English

Versal ACAP Design Guide (UG1273)

Document ID
UG1273
Release Date
2021-03-26
Version
2020.2 English

After hardware emulation provides a good view of the subsystem, you can proceed to the hardware build on a Xilinx standard platform. Targeting a Xilinx standard platform helps to eliminate some uncertainty from the test environment.

In this step, you are reusing the subsystem from the previous step but are now targeting the hardware build. Using the Vitis linker, you take the assembled PL kernels through synthesis and place and route. Using the Vitis packager, you package the PS and AI Engine programs to generate the required output files to load and run the application on the Xilinx standard development board.

In the early stages of the design, this step is similar to iterating through Vivado synthesis, place and route, and timing closure to achieve optimal results. Iterate until the performance objectives are met, including Fmax, throughput, and resource utilization.

Like the previous two steps of this design flow, this step also allows an incremental approach in which different components are gradually added to the subsystem and taken to hardware. This gradual approach allows you to safely build upon previously verified components, which is a proven strategy to manage design complexity.

From a performance standpoint, running in real hardware gives you more accurate numbers than running in hardware emulation. Potential sources of differences between this step and the preceding step include the following:

  • Implementation results in potentially lower clock frequency
  • More accurate execution profile of control code running on the PS
  • More realistic I/O patterns, resulting in more realistic exercising of stalls and back pressure
  • Discovery of corner cases that cannot be reached in the slower hardware emulation runs