Digilent Arty

.. _arty:

Digilent Arty
#############

Overview
********

The `Digilent Arty`_ is a line of FPGA-based development boards aimed for makers
and hobbyists. The Arty is available in several configurations, each with a
different Xilinx FPGA (Spartan-7, Artix-7, or Zynq-7000 series).

Each board is equipped with on-board JTAG for FPGA programming and debugging,
LEDs, switches, buttons, DDR3 RAM, and QSPI flash for storing the FPGA
bitstream.

.. figure:: ../../../../../../../boards/digilent/arty_a7/doc/arty_a7-35.jpg
   :align: center
   :alt: Digilent Arty A7-35

   Digilent Arty A7-35 (Credit: Digilent Inc)

The Spartan-7 and Artix-7 based Arty board do not contain a CPU, but require a
so-called soft processor to be instantiated within the FPGA in order to run
Zephyr. The Zynq-7000 based Arty boards are not yet supported by Zephyr.

ARM Cortex-M1/M3 DesignStart FPGA
*********************************

One way of instantiating soft processors on the Arty is using the `ARM
DesignStart FPGA`_ Xilinx edition reference designs from ARM. Zephyr supports
both the Cortex-M1 and the Cortex-M3 reference designs. The Cortex-M1 design
targets either the Spartan-7 or Artix-7 based Arty boards, whereas the Cortex-M3
design only targets the Artix-7 based boards. Zephyr only supports the Artix-7
targeted designs for now.

For more information about the ARM Cortex-M1/M3 DesignStart FPGA, see the
following websites:

- `Technical Resources for DesignStart FPGA`_
- `Technical Resources for DesignStart FPGA on Xilinx`_
- `ARM DesignStart FPGA Xilinx FAQs`_

Supported Features
==================

The ``arty_a7/designstart_fpga_cortex_m1`` board configuration supports the following
hardware features of the Cortex-M1 reference design:

+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+
| Interface | Controller | Driver/Component                    |
+===========+============+=====================================+
| NVIC      | on-chip    | nested vector interrupt controller  |
+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+
| SYSTICK   | on-chip    | systick                             |
+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+
| GPIO      | on-chip    | gpio, non-interrupt                 |
+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+
| UART      | on-chip    | serial port-polling;                |
|           |            | serial port-interrupt               |
+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+
| QSPI      | on-chip    | QSPI flash                          |
+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+

The default configuration for the Cortex-M1 can be found in the defconfig file:
:file:`boards/digilent/arty_a7/arty_a7_designstart_fpga_cortex_m1_defconfig`.

In addition to the above, the ``arty_a7/designstart_fpga_cortex_m3`` board configuration
supports the following hardware features of the Cortex-M3 reference design:

+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+
| Interface | Controller | Driver/Component                    |
+===========+============+=====================================+
| MPU       | on-chip    | Memory Protection Unit              |
+-----------+------------+-------------------------------------+

The default configuration for the Cortex-M3 can be found in the defconfig file:
:file:`boards/digilent/arty_a7/arty_a7_designstart_fpga_cortex_m3_defconfig`.

Other hardware features are not currently supported by the port.

System Clock
============

The Cortex-M1 reference design is configured to use the 100 MHz external
oscillator on the board as CPU system clock whereas the Cortex-M3 reference
design is configured for 50MHz CPU system clock.

Serial Port
===========

The reference design contains one Xilinx UART Lite. This UART is configured as
console and is accessible through the on-board JTAG adapter via USB connector
``J10``.

Connecting the Debug Probes
===========================

Two different debug probes are needed in order to program the board; the
on-board Digilent JTAG connected to the FPGA, and an external Serial Wire Debug
(SWD) capable debug probe connected to the ARM Cortex-M1 CPU.

The on-board JTAG is used for configuring and debugging the Xilinx FPGA
itself. It is available on USB connector ``J10``.

The external SWD debug probe can be connected to connector ``J4`` (``nSRST`` on
``IO39``, ``SWDIO`` on ``IO40``, and ``SWCLK`` on ``IO41``). Another option is
to use the dedicated :ref:`v2c_daplink_shield`.

Programming and Debugging
*************************

First, configure the FPGA with the selected reference design FPGA bitstream
using Xilinx Vivado as described in the ARM Cortex-M1/Cortex-M3 DesignStart FPGA
Xilinx edition user guide (available as part of the reference design download
from `Technical Resources for DesignStart FPGA on Xilinx`_).

Another option for configuring the FPGA with the reference design bitstream is
to use the :ref:`openocd-debug-host-tools`:

.. code-block:: console

   openocd -f board/arty_s7.cfg -c "init;\
        pld load 0 m1_for_arty_a7_reference.bit;\
        shutdown"

or:

.. code-block:: console

   openocd -f board/arty_s7.cfg -c "init;\
        pld load 0 m3_for_arty_a7_reference.bit;\
        shutdown"

.. note::

   The pre-built FPGA bitstream only works for Arty boards equipped with an
   Artix-35T FPGA. For other Arty variants (e.g. the Arty A7-100) the bitstream
   must be rebuilt.

Next, build and flash applications as usual (see :ref:`build_an_application` and
:ref:`application_run` for more details).

Configuring a Console
=====================

The UART console is available via the on-board JTAG on USB connector
``J10``. The on-board JTAG will enumerate as two USB serial ports. The UART is
typically available on the second serial port.

Use the following settings with your serial terminal of choice (minicom, putty,
etc.):

- Speed: 115200
- Data: 8 bits
- Parity: None
- Stop bits: 1

Flashing
========

Here is an example for building and flashing the :ref:`hello_world` application
for the Cortex-M1 reference design:

.. zephyr-app-commands::
   :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world
   :board: arty_a7/designstart_fpga_cortex_m1
   :goals: flash

After flashing, you should see message similar to the following in the terminal:

.. code-block:: console

   *** Booting Zephyr OS build zephyr-v2.3.99  ***
   Hello World! arty_a7

The same procedure can be used for the Cortex-M3 reference design.

Note, however, that the application was not persisted in flash memory by the
above steps. It was merely written to internal block RAM in the FPGA. It will
revert to the application stored in the block RAM within the FPGA bitstream
the next time the FPGA is configured.

The steps to persist the application within the FPGA bitstream are covered by
the ARM Cortex-M1/M3 DesignStart FPGA Xilinx edition user guide. If the
:kconfig:option:`CONFIG_BUILD_OUTPUT_BIN` is enabled and the `SiFive elf2hex`_ package
is available, the build system will automatically generate a Verilog memory hex
dump :file:`zephyr.mem` file suitable for initialising the block RAM using
`Xilinx Vivado`_.

Debugging
=========

Here is an example for the :ref:`hello_world` application.

.. zephyr-app-commands::
   :zephyr-app: samples/hello_world
   :board: arty_a7/designstart_fpga_cortex_m1
   :goals: debug

Step through the application in your debugger, and you should see a message
similar to the following in the terminal:

.. code-block:: console

   *** Booting Zephyr OS build zephyr-v2.3.99  ***
   Hello World! arty_a7

.. _Digilent Arty:
   https://store.digilentinc.com/arty

.. _ARM DesignStart FPGA:
   https://www.arm.com/resources/designstart/designstart-fpga

.. _Technical Resources for DesignStart FPGA:
   https://developer.arm.com/ip-products/designstart/fpga

.. _Technical Resources for DesignStart FPGA on Xilinx:
   https://developer.arm.com/ip-products/designstart/fpga/fpga-xilinx

.. _ARM DesignStart FPGA Xilinx FAQs:
   https://developer.arm.com/ip-products/designstart/fpga/fpga-xilinx-faqs

.. _SiFive elf2hex:
   https://github.com/sifive/elf2hex

.. _Xilinx Vivado:
   https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/vivado.html