Hardware Platform Specification

The Hardware Platform Specification file captures all the information and files from a hardware design that is required for a software developer to write, debug, and deploy software applications for that hardware.

Typically, a hardware designer who develops hardware using Vivado® creates the Hardware Platform Specification in a directory. The software developer then uses this information in the Xilinx Software Development Kit (SDK). The main components of this specification are:

  • A Hardware Description in an XML format
  • An FPGA Bitstream corresponding to the Hardware Description
  • A Block RAM Memory Map (BMM) file corresponding to the Bitstream
  • Zynq®-7000 AP SoC Initialization Files
    • ps7_init.tcl file. This is the pre-initialization file that is to be sourced and executed before any application is downloaded onto the target. this tcl contains the clock, pll and ddr initialization code.
    • ps7_init.c/.h files. These files are the C-equivalent files for the ps7_init.tcl file. The ps7_init.c and .h files are used during the FSBL application project creation.

SDK uses the Hardware Description file to detect the processor(s) and memory-mapped peripherals present in the hardware.

The FPGA bitstream programs an FPGA device with the hardware created by the hardware designer.

The BMM file is a description of the internal memories used in the hardware description. It fills in the internal block RAM as necessary with a program or data.