What's New in SDK 11.1?

What's new in SDK 11.1


New Xilinx Software Development Kit Install Package	SDK is available as a separate installation package in the 11.1 release, which does not require installation of Xilinx® ISE® Design Suite or the Xilinx Embedded Design Kit. The separate installation of SDK includes all features required to develop and debug software applications on Xilinx embedded processors, including GNU-based compiler toolchain, GNU debugger (GDB), drivers for Xilinx IPs, libraries for networking and file handling, POSIX compliant kernel library, and a rich IDE for C/C++ development and debugging. By not requiring the installation of ISE and EDK, the separate installation package significantly reduces the amount of installation space (by 90%) required for software development.

Support for Easy Archiving of Hardware Files from XPS	The files required from Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS) have been clearly defined by the Export flow in XPS. This allows for easy archiving of hardware files for SDK and sharing between hardware and software users.

Improved Hardware Design Report	From the hardware design report, you can now access datasheets for all IPs in the system.

Software Workspace Can be Located Anywhere	The SDK workspace can now be located anywhere in the system, allowing for easy organizing of hardware and software files in the project. It also allows the hardware and software team to work independently.

Auto-Detection of Hardware Changes	SDK automatically detects any change in the hardware specification, and the software projects in the workspace are synchronized to the hardware. The hardware system changes can be viewed at any time, and changes made to software projects are listed during synchronization. This helps to keep the software projects always in sync with the changing hardware system.

Support for Multiple Software Platforms and BSPs	SDK now supports creation of multiple Software Platform and Board Support Package (BSP) projects in the workspace. This gives the flexibility of grouping multiple versions and configurations of software platforms and BSPs in the same workspace for easy access.

Improved C/C++ Projects View	The C/C++ Projects view has been enhanced to list the processors in the system and software projects for the processor sub-system in a hierarchal order.

Simplified BSP Configuration	The Board Support Package Settings dialog box has been simplified for usability.

Create Test Programs	SDK supports creation of memory and peripheral test programs for the hardware system. The test programs are tailored for the referenced hardware system. This allows for easy validation of the hardware target functionality.

Create Sample Applications	You can create sample applications for the hardware and software platform. Like test programs, these applications are tailored for the referenced hardware system and software platform. This allows you to quickly jump start your software development. The following sample applications are available in 11.1: Hello World - C program to print hello world Dhrystone - Dhrystone synthetic benchmark program lwIP Echo Server - Provides a simple demonstration of how to use lwIP TCP/IP stack XilKernel POSIX Threads Demo - Provides a simple demonstration of how to create multiple POSIX threads and synchronize between them using XilKernel

Support Application Development for Third-Party OS	You can now use SDK to develop and debug applications for third-party operating systems, such as Micrium uCos. This requires some data files that can be downloaded from the supported OS company's website.

Portability of Software Projects	You can now export and import software projects to any workspace and any host platform. Changes have been made to the Managed Make flow to support this capability.

Importing of Software Projects	The Existing SDK Project into Workspace command in the Import dialog box now allows you to search for all projects under a specified location and import any projects (software platform, BSP and application) found at once. You can now also import existing projects from TAR and ZIP archive files.

Re-Target Software Projects to Different Hardware	You can now re-target the software projects in the workspace to another similar hardware system. The changes in the hardware system can be viewed at any time and the changes made to software projects are listed during re-targeting. This helps the software users to work with different versions of hardware and use the same software workspace.

User Software Repository	The Tools > Software Repositories command can be used to add software repositories that includes custom drivers and libraries.

Flexibility in Using FPGA Bitstream	The Tools > Program FPGA command can be used to specify any FPGA bitstream to use for programming. This allows you to work with multiple bitstream versions.

Configure JTAG Settings	Specification of JTAG settings has been centralized and you should now use the Tools > Configure JTAG Settings command. These settings are used for any communication with the hardware target, including programming FPGA, programming Flash, and debugging the program.

Safe-Mode Application Debugging	SDK now provides a safe mode of debugging which helps in trapping unhandled exception conditions in the program and narrowing down the scope of debugging.

Stop Blocked MicroBlaze Processors	SDK can now stop a MicroBlaze™ processor when it goes into a blocked state due to incorrect access, FSL access, or invalid bus access. This requires the latest version of MicroBlaze processors (Versions 7.20.a and above).

Command Auto-Completion	Xilinx MicroProcessor Debugger (XMD) now supports command auto-completion and history. This is supported only when XMD is launched using the command line. Note that this does not work inside the SDK IDE (XMD Console).

Ability to Set Breakpoints Before Main Function	If you want to debug the program startup routines, you can now set breakpoints in them before launching the debug session.

Updated Documentation and New Cheatsheets	The SDK documentation has been updated to include all the latest information. Cheat sheet tutorials have been added to guide you through simple tasks like creating applications and debugging them. To access the cheat sheets, select Help > Cheat Sheets.

Updated JRE Version	The JRE version has now been updated to 1.5.

Integration with Xilinx System Generator	The Xilinx System Generator tool now supports software development using SDK. It exports the required hardware files and launches SDK for software development. It also creates a repository with drivers for the DSP IP.
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