Pynq on zcu208

Hello,
I have a question.
I would like to know if it’s possible to use a pynq SD image with a zcu208 board.
I find the images for ZCU104 and ZCU111, but I would like to ask if a ZCU208 is availabe or if it will be.

Thank you
regards

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There aren’t currently plans to build an ‘official’ image for the ZCU208, but you can build your own PYNQ image for the board. See here for more details:

Please post back if you have further questions, or have any issues.

Cathal

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Hello Cathal,
Thanks for the information.
Following the procedure described in the post, we were able to obtain a working image for ZCU208 from a pre-built image, activating the ethernet package.
We used the command make boards=ZCU208eth PREBUILT=bionic…

Our goal is to have also the RFDC package active.
The problem is that no RFDC code is available under /sdbuild/package directory.
So, 2 questions:

  1. Where can we find RFDC code to put in /sdbuild/package directory?
  2. Is it still possible to use pre-built image? or should we re-build all?

Thank you
regards

Hi Andrea,
As mentioned, the ZCU208/RFSoC Gen 3 isn’t supported. This is because the main difference between RFSoC Gen 1/Gen3 is the DCs and the drivers haven’t been tested/updated for gen 3. Getting the basic PYNQ imaging working is straightforward as you saw because the PS looks the same for Zynq Ultrascale/RFSoC Gen 1/Gen 3.

We have PYNQ drivers for the DC’s for the RFSOC Gen 1 (built and tested for the ZCU111).
https://github.com/Xilinx/ZCU111-PYNQ/tree/master/ZCU111/packages
These have not been tested with the Gen 3.

They could work out-of-the-box or with minimal porting effort, or it could be a lot of work. This part needs some effort. You could look into it yourself.
Ultimately the DCs are “just another IP” in the PL that can be controlled from PYNQ. You can write your own driver for it.

Cathal

Hello Cathal,

OK.I’m working on the porting.
I’m modifing ZCU111 code you suggested (GitHub - Xilinx/ZCU111-PYNQ: Board files to build the ZCU111 PYNQ image).

I’m interested in porting XRFDC.
As ZCU208 is a RFSoC gen 3, embeddedsw 2020 is needed
So I changed xrfdc makefile to point to it, in particular, line 24:
git clone GitHub - Xilinx/embeddedsw: Xilinx Embedded Software (embeddedsw) Development -b release-2018.3 $(EMBEDDEDSW_DIR)
to
git clone GitHub - Xilinx/embeddedsw: Xilinx Embedded Software (embeddedsw) Development -b release-2020.2 $(EMBEDDEDSW_DIR)

When calling the make, the process is broken for a lot of errors.

It is due to the fact that, /lib/bsp/standalone/src/arm/cortexa53/64bits is not present in embeddedsw 2020.

A question for the community.
Any idea about why cortexa53 desappears in 2020?
Any suggestion about how to patch it?

thank you,
regards

Hi all,

I have now also switched from the ZCU111 to a ZCU208. Unfortunately I am an absolute beginner in embedded programming - PYNQ saved me here so far.

Is there any news regarding an official support for ZCU208 PYNQ?
Have the DC driver been tested in the meantime?
@andrea , were you able to create a working PYNQ image in the meantime and if so, would you mind sharing it with us?

Many thanks and regards
Patrick

Hi @patrickmatalla.

I would like to share with all how to do it. But, I wasn’t able to make pynq work ZCU208.
:frowning:

It is seems to be not easy at all.
I was able to generate an image. But the most important part, the RFDC does not work. At present, the ZCU208 is like a “huge MPSoC”.

I hope a new PYNQ release (or an experimental branch) will give some kind of support for ZCU208.
But I’m not sure it will do it.
I’m sorry I can’t give good news!

Anyone did it?
bye

Hi @andrea,

Were you ever able to get PYNQ working on the ZCU208, or do you know of anyone who has? I would also like to have PYNQ on the ZCU208. Thank you.

Hi all,

we have finally been able to create the ZCU208 PYNQ image.
Furthermore, we wrote our own function which reads the whole clock configuration from the .hwh or .bit files and automatically configures the LMK and LMX clock.

The README documentation will be completed soon.

You can find the image and the clock function in our Github organization:
Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics - KIT (github.com)

We hope that this will save many of you a lot of time and nerves.

We hope that this may help you.

Best,
Patrick

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This is very generous, few do this level of work and share it with everyone!

Kind regards

@patrickmatalla

Patrick,

Thank you very much for posting this. Did you use the 2020.2 versions of the BSP and the Vivado tools? What did you do about a bit file?

Jeff

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@patrickmatalla
Hi again Patrick,

I was able to build the ZCU208, but I’m still waiting to test it. I made one change to your spec file (see the following) to use the v2020.2 version of the BSP. Is there a reason why you used the .1 version? Thanks again for posting this.

Jeff

BSP_ZCU208 := xilinx-zcu208-v2020.2-final.bsp

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Hi Jeff,

we don’t remember which Vivado version we used and unfortunately our Virtual Machine is currently down. I think it was 2020.1 and we also used the 2020.1 bsp file.
But now that I check the ZCU216 example in github and the PYNQ change log Change Log — Python productivity for Zynq (Pynq) , 2020.2 should also work.

Best
Patrick

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