HDL Workflow Advisor Settings

The pictures shown are for illustrative purposes only, and may not reflect the correct Vivado tool version and target interface mapping. Only refer to the text for the correct tool version to set. As a convenience, a new block has been added to the models: "Select Module". Double clicking this block will allow you to select from the installed support packages available, and will define the required HDL Coder Workflow Advisor settings in advance of opening the workflow. Please double-check the settings as you progress through the workflow.

Launching HDL Workflow Advisor

Right-click on the green subsystem to open the HDL Workflow Advisor tool.

1.1. Set Target Device and Synthesis Tool

A window will appear. The first step consists of selecting the Target workflow and platform. For this specific reference design, the following settings in HDL Workflow Advisor must be set.

1.2. Set Target Reference Design

In the next step, select the corresponding reference design. Depending on the number of installed reference designs, different variants of reference designs can be selected. Note that in past support packages there were a greater number of target reference designs. Many of these have been condensed by the addition of the reference design parameters "Front Plugin" and "Rear Plugin". Please be sure to select these as appropriate for your particular hardware and use case.

1.3. Set Target Interface

The target interfaces are set correctly in the example. When you make changes to the example you will need to edit the interfaces as appropriate for the style interface desired for the inputs and outputs of your model. These could be native interfaces, going to actual pins on the device if I/O modules are available, or they could be PCIe read or write operations. Several other types of interfaces are also available for specialized purposes. The example models show interface selections which are appropriate for the device which your integration package supports. Use these to assist you with your own work.

1.4. Set Target Frequency

The target frequency defines the base clock rate for your hardware design. Choosing a clock rate which is too high may cause timing issues. If the synthesize or implementation tasks of your design fail, this value may be reduced. Generally 100 MHz is a safe choice, however, the choice of some interfaces will require a clock with a minimum rate.

3.2. Generate RTL Code and IP Core

Until this point HDL Workflow Advisor did not factor in the additional, manually written HDL code added as Black Box to your model (it simply focused on the interface and on the code wrapped around your Simulink block). For more information about the Black Box approach, go to: Generate Black Box Interface for Subsystem. To create the VHDL project, you must specify where the Black Box source files are located. Click Add Source to browse your file system until you reach the location where the VHDL files are saved. Select all the files and click Open. The files will appear in the Additional source files field.

4. Embedded System Integration

HDL Workflow Advisor now has all the information to create the project and build the FPGA bitstream. If you run through step 4, Workflow Advisor will open Vivado in the background and generate the bitstream. This can easily take half an hour or more.

5.2. Generate Simulink Real-Time interface

HDL Workflow Advisor will now generate another test model which is ready to be built and downloaded to your target. At this point, you can still change the model configuration as you can do with any other Simulink model. The subsystem has been replaced by the drivers required to perform PCI read and write access.

Depending on the front and rear plugin, additional function block parameters are promoted to the top mask. Descriptions of these block parameters are available in the corresponding Simulink block help documentation (blocks are located inside the generated subsystem). The base mask parameters are: