Understanding Target Platforms - 2023.2 English

Vitis Unified Software Platform Documentation: Application Acceleration Development (UG1393)

Document ID
UG1393
Release Date
2023-12-13
Version
2023.2 English

In the Vitis technology, a target platform is the hardware design that is implemented onto the FPGA before any custom logic, or accelerators are added. The target platform defines the attributes of the FPGA and is composed of two regions:

  • Static region which contains kernel and device management logic.
  • Dynamic region where the custom logic of the accelerated kernels is placed.

The figure below shows an FPGA with the target platform applied.

Figure 1. Target Platform on an FPGA with Four SLR Regions

The target platform, which is a static region that cannot be modified, contains the logic required to operate the FPGA, and transfer data to and from the dynamic region. The static region, shown above in gray, might exist within a single SLR, or as in the above example, might span multiple SLRs. The static region contains:

  • DDR memory interface controllers
  • PCIe® interface logic
  • XDMA logic
  • Firewall logic, etc.

The dynamic region is the area shown in white above. This region contains all the reconfigurable components of the target platform and is the region where all the accelerator kernels are placed.

Because the static region consumes some of the hardware resources available on the device, the custom logic to be implemented in the dynamic region can only use the remaining resources. In the example shown above, the target platform defines that all four DDR memory interfaces on the FPGA can be used. This will require resources for the memory controller used in the DDR interface.

Details on how much logic can be implemented in the dynamic region of each target platform is provided in the Vitis Software Platform Release Notes. This topic is also addressed in Modifying Kernel Placement.