C Driver Files - 2022.1 English

Vitis High-Level Synthesis User Guide (UG1399)

Document ID
UG1399
Release Date
2022-06-07
Version
2022.1 English

When an AXI4-Lite slave interface is implemented, a set of C driver files are automatically created. These C driver files provide a set of APIs that can be integrated into any software running on a CPU and used to communicate with the device via the AXI4-Lite slave interface.

The C driver files are created when the design is packaged as IP in the IP catalog.

Driver files are created for standalone and Linux modes. In standalone mode the drivers are used in the same way as any other Xilinx standalone drivers. In Linux mode, copy all the C files (.c) and header files (.h) files into the software project.

The driver files and API functions derive their name from the top-level function for synthesis. In the above example, the top-level function is called “example”. If the top-level function was named “DUT” the name “example” would be replaced by “DUT” in the following description. The driver files are created in the packaged IP (located in the impl directory inside the solution).

Table 1. C Driver Files for a Design Named Example
File Path Usage Mode Description
data/example.mdd Standalone Driver definition file.
data/example.tcl Standalone Used by SDK to integrate the software into an SDK project.
src/xexample_hw.h Both Defines address offsets for all internal registers.
src/xexample.h Both API definitions
src/xexample.c Both Standard API implementations
src/xexample_sinit.c Standalone Initialization API implementations
src/xexample_linux.c Linux Initialization API implementations
src/Makefile Standalone Makefile

In file xexample.h, two structs are defined.

XExample_Config
This is used to hold the configuration information (base address of each AXI4-Lite slave interface) of the IP instance.
XExample
This is used to hold the IP instance pointer. Most APIs take this instance pointer as the first argument.

The standard API implementations are provided in files xexample.c, xexample_sinit.c, xexample_linux.c, and provide functions to perform the following operations.

  • Initialize the device
  • Control the device and query its status
  • Read/write to the registers
  • Set up, monitor, and control the interrupts

Refer to Vitis HLS C Driver Reference for a description of the API functions provided in the C driver files.

Important: The C driver APIs always use an unsigned 32-bit type (U32). You might be required to cast the data in the C code into the expected type.