ZYBO Z7 FPGA board FLASH MEMORY PROGRAMMING HELP

[Juan de Jesus]

Good morning:

I am working with the ZYBO Z7 zynq-7000 fpga board. Please, I would like to know about the process that I must follow to save and run the code algorithm in the Flash memory of this board for stand alone mode operation.

I am using vivavdo and vitis 2020.2

Could you please help me in this procedure?

Many Thanks

[JColvin]

Hi @Juan de Jesus,

You can load a zynq program on to the flash memory by creating a regular Zynq project (such as this one explained in Digilent's guide here: https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/guides/getting-started-with-ipi) in Vivado and then when you create the new application project in Vitis, make sure that the "Generate Boot Components" box is checked (this is also mentioned in the guide).

Once the project has been built in Vitis and you confirmed that it works as expected, you will see that a BOOT.BIN has been created in the file directory under the <Vitis-Project-Name>_system/Debug/sd_card folder. Although the folder and the readme says that this boot.bin is for an SD card, the actual structure of the file is the same so you can just load it onto the on-board flash memory with no changes.

You can then program the onboard QSPI flash memory by clicking on the Xilinx tab at the top of the Vitis and selecting the Program Flash option. On the "Image File" line, browse for the BOOT.BIN file and then click the Program button to configure the flash memory.

To load the project from flash, turn off the power to the Zybo Z7, and then set jumper JP5 (located below the "ZYBO Z7" silkscreen label) to QSPI, then turn the board back on to load the Zynq project you made from the flash memory.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin