By Adam Taylor

Over the last week I have been approached by a number of different people who are using different Zynq based development kits and they’re wondering how to apply the MicroZed Chronicles to their chosen hardware. In addition to the Avnet MicroZed, there are a number of other popular development kits based on versions of the Zynq. Here’s a list of popular Zynq-based development boards showing the Zynq SoC variant on each board:

MicroZed – XC7Z010

ZedBoard – XC7Z020

ZC702 – XC7Z020

ZC706 – XC7Z045

ZYBO – XC7Z010

Why should users of others dev kits not want to follow along with the internet’s preeminent Zynq blog? It’s actually pretty easy to do and takes us back over 12 months to the very first blog in this series where we defined the configuration of the hardware we would be working with. This is the point where we can declare the board we’re using—when we declared the project—as in the picture below:

Selecting the desired board configures the appropriate SoC, its surrounding environment, and configuration for the peripherals on the board—for example, which of the MIO pins each peripheral is connected to along with the configuration information required for the MIO pins. Most importantly, this selection also sets up the DDR DRAM address location and configuration parameters, which saves us from entering this information by hand. The image below shows the configuration for the MicroZed DDR:

But what happens if we wish to use a board that lacks a built in default? In that case we can import an xml file that defines the board configuration we are going to use. This file is normally supplied by the board manufacturer. If not, then demand one.

It’s simple to import one of these files:

Create a project that targets the device in your development board or kit.

Create a new block diagram (as shown in first blog of this series ) and add in a Zynq IP block from the IP library.

Double click on the block diagram to open the re-customize IP screen.

Select the IMPORT XPS SETTINGS option

Point this option to your vendor-supplied XML file

Import the file as shown below:

The image below shows the DDR configuration for the Zynq with settings for the Digilent Zybo board:

Once your hardware is correctly defined, you can build your system as I have done for each of the blogs in this series. Most of my blogs focus on using Zynq peripherals or modules. In such cases, no changes are required. When the blog uses external devices—for example LEDs or pushbuttons—you need to adjust the MIO specifications and pin out for your board. However, the blogs explain how to do this even though they’re written with a focus on the Avnet MicroZed board. It’s pretty straight forward to use these blog posts for any board because the same principles apply.

You can find the code for all of the previous examples in the MicroZed Chronicles blog series here and the list of previous blogs in the series are below.

To those that emailed and asked me, thanks! I hope you have fun following along with this series and learning about the Zynq SoC.

Please see the previous entries in this MicroZed Chronicles series by Adam Taylor:

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 72: Multi-cycle Constraints

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 70: Constraints—Clock Relationships and Avoiding Metastability

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 70: Constraints—Introduction to timing and defining a clock

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 69: Zynq SoC Constraints Overview

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 68: AXI DMA Part 3, the Software

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 67: AXI DMA II

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 66: AXI DMA

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 65: Profiling Zynq Applications II

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 64: Profiling Zynq Applications

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 63: Debugging Zynq Applications

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 62: Answers to a question on the Zynq XADC

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 61: PicoBlaze Part Six

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 60: The Zynq and the PicoBlaze Part 5—controlling a CCD

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 59: The Zynq and the PicoBlaze Part 4

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 58: The Zynq and the PicoBlaze Part 3

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 57: The Zynq and the PicoBlaze Part Two

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 56: The Zynq and the PicoBlaze

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 55: Linux on the Zynq SoC

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 54: Peta Linux SDK for the Zynq SoC

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 53: Linux and SMP

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 52: One year and 151,000 views later. Big, Big Bonus PDF!

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 51: Interrupts and AMP

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 50: AMP and the Zynq SoC’s OCM (On-Chip Memory)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 49: Using the Zynq SoC’s On-Chip Memory for AMP Communications

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 48: Bare-Metal AMP (Asymmetric Multiprocessing)

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 47: AMP—Asymmetric Multiprocessing on the Zynq SoC

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 46: Using both of the Zynq SoC’s ARM Cortex-A9 Cores

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 44: MicroZed Operating Systems—FreeRTOS

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 43: XADC Alarms and Interrupts

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles MicroZed Part 42: MicroZed Operating Systems Part 4

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles MicroZed Part 41: MicroZed Operating Systems Part 3

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles MicroZed Part 40: MicroZed Operating Systems Part Two

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles MicroZed Part 39: MicroZed Operating Systems Part One

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles MicroZed Part 38 – Answering a question on Interrupts

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 37: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 8

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 36: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 7

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 35: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 6

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 34: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 5

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 33: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with the Zynq SoC

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 32: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 31: Systems of Modules, Driving RGB NeoPixel LED arrays

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 30: The MicroZed I/O Carrier Card

Zynq DMA Part Two – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 29

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Eight: Zynq DMA – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 28

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Seven: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 27

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Six: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 26

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Five: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 25

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Four: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 24

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Three: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 23

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Two: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 22

The Zynq PS/PL, Part One: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 21

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part Four: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 20

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part Three: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 19

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part Two: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 18

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part One: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 17

The Zynq SoC’s Private Watchdog: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 16

Implementing the Zynq SoC’s Private Timer: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 15

MicroZed Timers, Clocks and Watchdogs: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 14

More About MicroZed Interrupts: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 13

MicroZed Interrupts: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 12

Using the MicroZed Button for Input: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 11

Driving the Zynq SoC's GPIO: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 10

Meet the Zynq MIO: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 9

MicroZed XADC Software: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 8

Getting the XADC Running on the MicroZed: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 7

A Boot Loader for MicroZed. Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 6

Figuring out the MicroZed Boot Loader – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 5

Running your programs on the MicroZed – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 4

Zynq and MicroZed say “Hello World”-- Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 3

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles: Setting the SW Scene

Bringing up the Avnet MicroZed with Vivado