Hardware specification

The hardware specification captures all necessary information and files from a Xilinx® Embedded Development Kit (EDK) hardware design that are required for a software developer to develop, debug, and deploy software applications for that hardware. Typically, a hardware designer who develops hardware using Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS) exports this specification file to a directory. The software developer then imports this file using the Xilinx Software Development Kit (SDK). The main components of a hardware specification are:

The description of hardware in an XML format
The FPGA Bitstream corresponding to the hardware description

The FPGA bitstream is used to configure a general-purpose FPGA device with the hardware created by the hardware designer. SDK uses the hardware description file to detect the processor(s) and memory mapped peripherals present in the hardware.

Auto-synchronization of software projects
If you make changes to the hardware in XPS and export the specification file or receive one from the hardware user, SDK automatically detects any change to the contents of hardware specification file referenced by the software projects. It will display the changes to the hardware design like addition or deletion of processor and peripheral IP, change in memory map of the processor sub-system, and change in the IP parameters. It also displays and performs the changes to the software projects based on the hardware modification. Some actions are performed by SDK, such as adding or removing drivers in the platform, enabling or disabling projects for a processor, and changing compiler flags. It also provides recommendation of changes that you should perform, such as changing the linker script if the memory map is changed.

Re-targeting software projects
If you have similar hardware designs, such as different versions of a hardware, you can re-target the software projects in the workspace to build and run different hardware. Similar to auto-synchronization, SDK will provide you the hardware changes and relevant software changes.

Importing a hardware specification file