Please clarify which Vivado versions can be used with example projects

[Jan Kok]

I'm about to install Vivado on a new computer and want to know which version(s) will work for compiling the Arty Z7 and Arty A7 example projects.

I'm asking because I've tried to use version 2017.4 twice and had problems each time, possibly due to version incompatibility problems. Using version 2016.4 resulted in success each time. In another thread, @jpeyron said "The xadc project was made for Vivado 2016.4. Unfortunately, the version does matter."

Unfortunately, the "Installing Vivado and Digilent Board Files" document https://reference.digilentinc.com/vivado/installing-vivado/start (which is referenced at https://reference.digilentinc.com/reference/programmable-logic/arty/start?redirect=1, https://reference.digilentinc.com/reference/programmable-logic/arty-a7/start, https://reference.digilentinc.com/reference/programmable-logic/arty-z7/start, and probably lots of other project "start" pages) recommends using "Vivado Design Suite - HLx Editions - 2017.4 Full Product Installation"!

So, does the 2017.4 HLx edition work with the Arty Z7 and A7 example projects? If not, the "Installing Vivado and Digilent Board Files" document contains bad advice, which can lead to users wasting hours or days of their time downloading and installing the software and then trying to get the projects to work.

Please clarify which Vivado versions and Editions (plain Vivado vs. HLx) work with the example projects.

[jpeyron]

Hi @Jan Kok,

Currently, we have not had time to upgrade our projects to Vivado 2017.4. If you are wanting to use the arty and arty-z7 projects without upgrading/generating the ip cores and generating a wrapper then you would want to use Vivado 2016.4. I know that upgrading our projects to Vivado 2017.4 is on our list of to do's. We will pass on your concerns about the tutorials to our content team. Our content team will look through you suggestions when the have time. Also you can use the HLx edition which comes with both vivado HLx and Vivado HLS. Our demos and tutorials are currently only geared to Vivado HLx.  

thank you,

Jon