Analog Essentials Getting Started Guide
4
Getting Started
Introduction
The Xilinx Zynq FPGA provides a (nearly) standalone dual-core Arm Cortex-A9 CPU along with a large amount of FPGA
fabric and I/O. The Maxim Analog Essentials project utilizes a combination of software on one of the Cortex-A9 CPUs
combined with programmable logic based peripherals that connect through the FPGA programmable fabric to PMOD
connector JA on the Zedboard. The project requires that both an FPGA bitstream and Cortex-A9 executable be
downloaded to the board in order to operate.
The first section of this guide leads the user through the process of loading the project into the Zedboard for execution.
The section following that outlines the basic steps in modifying the project.
Overview: Downloading the Example/Demonstration Application
Below is a high-level overview of the steps required to download and run the FPGA project. Detailed instructions for
each step are provided in the following pages.
1. From Maxim’s website, download the latest version of the Maxim Analog Essentials project. Be sure to
download the version specified for operation with Zedboard. The code will be delivered as a .zip file. Visit
www.maximintegrated.com/fpga-modules, then click on the link to MAXPMBAE which takes you to the Quick-
View page for Analog Essentials. From there, click on the “Technical Documents” to access the software
downloads.
2. Extract the .zip file to a directory on your machine (direction location is arbitrary, but for the purposes of this
document, it will be c:\designs\maxim\v1_4). See Appendix B in this document for a complete description of
the included files.
3. Open the Xilinx SDK (Windows Start Menu > Xilinx ISE 14.1 > EDK > Xilinx Software Development Kit).
4. Download the bitstream (.bit) file to the board. This bitstream contains the FPGA hardware design and software
bootloader.
5. Open Hyperterminal or a similar communications program to communicate with FPGA board.
6. Use the SDK to download and run executable file (.elf) on the Cortex-A9.
