To quickly recap, FastVDMA is an open source DMA controller designed with portability and customizability in mind written in Chisel and released by Antmicro in 2019. This gives you an easy starting point for using co-simulation with the platform running a modern Linux kernel. Cadence GEM (Zynq’s Ethernet controller) peripheral improvements.
FPGA SIMULATION MEMORY UPDATE
Update of the bundled demo to a more recent kernel version (and corresponding model improvements).Related to this work, Renode’s Zynq-7000 simulation model was also updated, adding quite a few interesting features, such as: Since the Xilinx Zynq-7000 (featuring an up-to dual-core Cortex-A9 and Xilinx’s 7-series FPGA fabric) is in use in many of our customer projects as well as Antmicro’s open source hardware platforms like the Zynq Video Board, we decided to demonstrate how Renode’s co-simulation features can be used there using Linux and our open source Fast Versatile DMA core. This in turn allows you to simulate complex setups in FPGA and FPGA SoC systems (such as PolarFire SoC and now also Zynq-7000) with multiple co-simulated IP blocks which you can see in the RISC-V + Verilated FastVDMA test. It is important to mention that HDL simulation is particularly slow, so having Renode simulating the greater part of the system is a tremendous efficiency improvement.Īs you may have read in the previous note on advanced co-simulation, you can now have a Verilated peripheral initialize communication with Renode by sending and requesting data from the system bus.
FPGA SIMULATION MEMORY DRIVER
The core itself is controlled with a Linux driver implementing standard DMA API to showcase the intercommunication between the two sides. In this blog note we will be showcasing Renode co-simulating the very popular Zynq-7000 SoC running Linux with a Verilated open source FastVDMA core.
This is necessary for the work we are doing with our customers related to silicon prototyping, advanced video device development Co-simulation has been available in Renode for quite a while now and we are constantly adding more and more features as well as ready-to-use peripherals. Co-simulation is extremely useful for developing complex systems, especially those targeting FPGA SoCs, where specialized IP cores often interact with advanced software running on the hard CPU.