How to Program Xilinix Artix-7 FPGA on my DUT using LabVIEW

[VENKATESH.J]

Hi All,

Can somebody help me understand how to Program Xilinix Artix-7 FPGA on my DUT using LabVIEW?

Currently i'm using Xilinx Vivado Tool to program the Flash attached to FPGA using .mcs file manually. I want to automate this process and attach as part of ATE Tester.

Regards,

Venky

[cbutcher]

That seems to be a pretty broad question with almost no detail. It sounds like what you're asking is "how do I use LabVIEW FPGA to program an FPGA chip - I'm already familiar with the Xilinx Vivado Tool". Is that about right?

If so, I can really only point you to the LabVIEW FPGA tutorials (there's a demo here) - I suspect it's almost nothing like programming in VHDL or similar, but perhaps you'll find that experience helpful.

[VENKATESH.J]

Thanks for your response Cbutcher,

Tutorial what you had shared is nice.

But i wanted to automate the manual process of programming the Flash attached to Xilinx Artix-7 series FPGA. 

As of now, i'm doing it manually outside my ATE Tester using Xilinx Vivado Tool.

I'm interested in only automating the process for now. I can put a JTAG Programming device inside my tester. Have you come across this situation or if you can point me to implement this in LabVIEW would be really helpful.

Regards,

Venky

[cbutcher]

Just to confirm - is this an NI FPGA module, or standalone etc?

If it isn't an NI FPGA, I'm not sure if it's possible to use LabVIEW FPGA at all. I found a post on this topic (it's quite old): How-can-I-install-download-a-Labview-FPGA-code-onto-Altera-FPGA.

The answer given there is it is not possible - I don't know if this might have changed (although I doubt it).

If it is an NI FPGA module, then once you've created the bitfile using LabVIEW and the FPGA module, you can upload it to the DUT using the VIs available for file transfer (the bitfile) and FPGA interface (to open the reference on the host).

[VENKATESH.J]

No...its not NI FPGA Module.

its an Electronic board with FPGA on it. 

I have already got the FPGA program written in verilog & compiled using Xilinx Vivado Tool.

I'm not trying to re-compile the code using LabVIEW FPGA...I'm downloading the code manually using Xilinx Vivado Tool & JTAG Programmer. I would like to Automate that download process using LabVIEW. Just like calling/controlling an third party tool using LabVIEW

[GerdW]

Hi Venkatesh,

I'm downloading the code manually using Xilinx Vivado Tool & JTAG Programmer. I would like to Automate that download process using LabVIEW.

Then read the manual for Vivado and your JTAG-Programmer to learn how to automate them…

[cbutcher]

Are you talking about something like this when you say JTAG programmer? jtag-hs3-programming-cable

That specific link describes a Digilent "Adept SDK" which can be used to drive the programmer.

However, as GerdW said, the task that you're now describing is quite different to what I gathered from you opening post and the thread title. As a result, to help further, we definitely need more information about exactly which tool you're using/wanting to use, and some additional information about the steps you currently take also wouldn't hurt (although may not be an absolute requirement).

I'm also a little curious about your desire to do this with LabVIEW - is there some specific reason? I wouldn't discourage it, but so far it doesn't necessarily sound like the simplest tool to use for this application. Are you linking it into the ATE which is already running LabVIEW code?

[rolfk · Accepted solution]

Most likely you want to call some command line tool that comes with your Vivado Toolchain that performs the download and flashing of the code with your JTAG programmer. While it may seem difficult to do and nowadays often is pretty underdocumented as most users just expect a point and click experience, it is generally the most versatile method to implement such functionality. You can call command line tools from LabVIEW with the System Exec function in LabVIEW.

Basically the main problem is to figure out which tool to call and what command line parameters to pass to it. This should be mentioned somewhere in the very extensive Vivado documentation. The entire Xilinx toolchain consists of lots of such command line tools that get under the hood called by the interactive Vivado Develpment environment as well as by the LabVIEW FPGA Module when doing its own magic.

[VENKATESH.J]

Hi cbutcher,

i'm using Xilinx JTAG Programmer.

Link for Reference:https://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/hw-usb-ii-g.html

I'm sorry probably the title i used to describe the problem was not right.

I want to program the Artix 7 FPGA using Vivado Tool. Lately i understood i cannot use LabVIEW FPGA....Yes ATE tester is LabVIEW based. so thought of using LabVIEW based solution.

Regards,

Venky

[VENKATESH.J]

Hi rolfk,

Thanks for pointing me to right direction.

I thought of it, but not sure whether it would be easy to do so following documentation.

so posted it in forum, in case someone has already done it.

But later after your response i tried that path again and found Vivado Tool used Tcl shell command line option to run in batch mode. i collected the commands from Tcl console made it as a tcl script and executed them using System exec in LabVIEW. Its working cool now....

Thank you rolfk for recommending that path.

Regards,

Venky