kermit0124 / cmd_vivado

Simplified Command Line Interface to Xilinx's Vivado IDE

cmd_vivado

This package provides a mechanism for interacting with the Xilinx Vivado IDE through a simplified command line tool. Vivado provides a Tcl based interface to programatically avoid the GUI, but it is too low level to directly interact with a build system. This package provides an interface suitable to be used with build tools such as Make.

Usage

cmd_vivado works by running the Vivado IDE in Tcl mode as a server (vivado_server.py). This is advantageous as Vivado takes several (~8 on my current machine) seconds to start up. The client (vivado_client.py) provides a simplified command line interface to the synthesize, place, route, and program workflow. The client communicates to the server through sockets. Theoretically the server could run remotely from the client, although this has not been tested.

Server

./vivado_server.py --exec_path=~/VivadoPath/bin/vivado

Client

./vivado_client.py command --options

The client currently implements the following commands:

• synth - Synthesize a design.
• place - Place a synthesized design.
• route - Route a placed design.
• bitstream - Write a .bit bitstream.
• cfg_mem - Write a .bin configuration memory file.
• load - Load a bitstream onto a device.
• flash - Flash a configuration onto on-board flash.

Further information can be sought with the --help option.

Make

make all

The provided Makefile shows how to combine cmd_vivado with a build tool for a rudimentary workflow. Verbosity can be increased with make VERBOSE=1.

Example Project

The example directory contains the simplest possible project that demonstrates cmd_vivado use with a Makefile. It is targeted at the Digilent Arty A7 A35T development board.

Steps

1. Install Vivado including drivers (requires an extra step on Linux).
2. Plug in the Arty A7 micro USB.
3. Start the server with ./vivado_server.py exec_path=VIVADO_PATH. Make sure to change VIVADO_PATH with path to your Vivado installation.
4. From the example directory run make VERBOSE=1 flash.
5. Wait for Vivado to do it's thing.
6. Play with the buttons (BTN[3:0]) and observe LEDS (LED[7:4]).

Status

Currently cmd_vivado has only the features required for the simplest demonstration. I expect many features will need to be added for it to be useful in non-trivial projects, but hopefully this framework will provide a good starting point. I am learning about FPGAs as I go, and I welcome suggestions.

Wish List

• Explore ways to speed up various parts of workflow.
• Explore Out Of Context (OOC) workflow and how it could be leveraged for incremental compilation.