Genesys 2 Kintex-7 FPGA Development board

[EngineerHW]

Does the Genesys 2 Kintex-7 FPGA Development board support data transfer over fiber?

[JColvin]

Hi @EngineerHW,

I'm not entirely certain what you mean by "over fiber", but if you are wanting to be using something like fiber cables with a SFP+ connector and corresponding shield cage to do 10 gigabit work, then the Genesys 2 does not have this capability built in. There may be an FMC add-on board that supports this, though I do not have any recommendations nor have done any research into this.

The Genesys ZU 5EV, https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/genesys-zu/start, has an SFP+ connector and cage, though Digilent does not have any examples using this particular feature of the board (and a separate Xilinx license is required if you want to use the 10G Ethernet MAC layer if you want to use their 10G/25G Ethernet Subsystem IP).

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin

[EngineerHW]

Thanks. Yes, my question was indeed going at 10G over fiber cables using SFP connector.. I will look at the Genesys ZU for further detail.

[EngineerHW]

Is there a pdf version of the reference manual for the Genesys ZU board. When I click on the link it takes me to the web version of the manual. Thanks

[EngineerHW]

Is there a pdf version of the reference manual for the Genesys ZU board. When I click on the link it takes me to the web version of the manual. Thanks

[JColvin]

Hi @EngineerHW,

I asked for one to be created when you last posted on the 18th (my apologies for not updating the thread here), but I have not heard back as of yet. I will follow up with them to find out the status of this.

Thanks,
JColvin

[JColvin]

I heard back from our web team; it will take them quite a bit of time to get a nice looking pdf of the document due to it's sheer length and the amount of dropdowns and tables, but they also reminded me that if you want to just have a paper copy, you can always go to the print option in your browser and then choose to save the webpage as a pdf.

[EngineerHW]

I was looking at the reference manual, specifically interested in the 5EV option. Is it accurate that this module only has 34 differential IO that can be used and assigned by the user? Thanks 

[JColvin]

It is my understanding that there are 34 differential pairs that are available on the LPC FMC specifically with 8 more differential pairs on the SYZYGY Standard interface.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
JColvin

 

[zygot]

What kinds of projects are you expecting to do with your FPGA platform purchase?

Transceivers and user programmable Vccio bank voltages tend to be expensive options; as do high performance IO connectors. Trying to find the "one board for all purposes" platform is hard. UltraScale devices usually require at least a node-locked device license that will limit your ability to migrate to new tool versions. Also, UltraScale devices are not the same as Series 7 devices in terms of advances IO features.

[asmi]

1 hour ago, zygot said:

 UltraScale devices usually require at least a node-locked device license that will limit your ability to migrate to new tool versions.

You might want to familiarize yourself with the list of devices included into the free license as you keep misinforming people about this topic: https://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/vivado/vivado-ml.html#architecture

As you can see, all US+ boards sold by Digilent are included into the free license, and overall a fair amount of US/US+ devices are included as well.

I do agree with the rest of your post, especially the part about settling your requirements and expectations - it's all too easy to expect too much and end up being disappointed about wasting a fair amount of money when the board can't actually do what you wanted/expected it to do.

[zygot]

@asmi

Well, it's true that sometimes the newest versions of FPGA vendor tools add free support for devices that previous tool versions don't. If you are just starting out in FPGA development and are installing a vendor toolset for the first time, then I'd recommend installing the very latest... if the latest also supports your PC OS. You should always check the list of supported devices and OS versions for any toolset version you intend to install from any vendor. If you have a lot of code developed on older tools, then I'd recommend being very careful about migrating to newer versions unless you have a driving requirement to do so. Among the list of reasons is newer tool versions breaking code developed by older versions. All FPGA vendors do this on occasion. Another reason is that the free vendor IP that your old code depended on may well get changed significantly, or removed altogether. What might work for one person may be a big hassle for others. Questions to the Digilent Forums about Digilent demo projects would seem to prove my point.

I haven't even thought about changing to the latest edition of Vivado for some time, but Vivado ML does support devices that previous versions don't, like the ZU7EV, which does require a license for the Vivado versions that I have installed. So, your point is well taken that keeping apprised of changes to supported devices might make the hassle of migrating to a newer tool version something to consider.

Another thing to consider is whether the new tools break all of your old code... like Vivado 2019.2 did for me, and it's hard to know that until you install the new version. So, is the fact that the very latest Vivado ML ( I assume that this is what you get if you install the latest Vitis tools ) supports the ZCU106 device enough to make me want to install the new tools? I don't know. Do I want to abandon Vivado 2019.1 and the SDK and take a chance with the changes and bugs in the latest? It's been some time since installing a newer version of FPGA tools has been a "home run". For the most part, Vivado 2020.2 has been idle as I can generally work faster with the known bugs in Vivado 2019.1/SKD unless node-locked licenses are in the way. As of Vitis 2020.2 Xilinx still doesn't support this board with the software development tool directly.  Deciding on which version of a vendor toolset you want to use isn't always a simple endeavor.

I should have written that some devices and tool combinations require a node-locked license as that would be more accurate. Thanks for your post. But, you are over-simplifying a topic in your zeal to zing me on an admittedly poorly post.

Edited December 11, 2021 by zygot

[asmi]

15 hours ago, zygot said:

But, you are over-simplifying a topic in your zeal to zing me on an admittedly poorly post.

I don't want to "zing" anyone - I have far better things to do - but providing inaccurate information to beginners is not a great way to help them out. So I try to point them out whenever I notice.

As for versions - I have multiple version installed all the time as they work side-by-side with no problems, for many reasons - for example, my device-locked license for Kintex-325T (that I got along with Genesys 2 board) is only valid for versions up to 2020.1, I also generally don't migrate important in-progress projects to a new version unless there is a good reason to do so (like a bugfix/change that is important enough to warrant risks associated with migration). I got to say that HDL-only projects are the easiest to migrate - I can't remember ever having problems during migration, IPI projects tend to cause troubles when some of IP used change their minor version (revision change is generally not a problem).

I recently migrated all my Vivado/Vitis work to Linux because I was using PetaLinux for a couple of projects (which you can only do under Linux), and switching back-and-forth was not very convenient even with VMs, so I just bought a mini-PC and installed Linux on it, and use a cheap-ass USB switch from Amazon to switch keyboard/mouse between machines, as well as monitor remote to switch screens. I feel like Linux version of Vivado/Vitis is more stable, but I didn't use it for long enough yet to say for sure. But I do know for sure that if you want to do any software development (and especially driver development) for Zynq/Linux target, it's much easier to do on a Linux box. 

[zygot]

On 12/8/2021 at 11:23 AM, asmi said:

As you can see, all US+ boards sold by Digilent are included into the free license... So I try to point them out whenever I notice.

I agree with you ( about wanting to clear up posts that are confusing or just plain wrong) ... and hate to inform you that this statement, from you, is incorrect. I own 2 different boards made by and sold by Digilent that require a device licence..... both Kintex based. Of course you know this according to your previous post.

I really am happy to be corrected when I make a misstatement... but if you are going to add the accusation that someone is "spreading misinformation" than you should be doubly careful about what you post yourself... everyone, including the both of us, has made "unfortunate" posts. We can correct mistakes without adding slander or personal attack element. If you really dislike everything about what I post, that's OK with me; but try to the facts from the emotions.

I feel comfortable suggesting that anyone install new tools verify device support and ( among quite a few other things ) OS version compatibility; though to a degree you can sometimes get away with fudging the host OS version.

BTW, I second your observation about doing ARM based FPGA development on a Linux host.

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by zygot

[zygot]

10 hours ago, asmi said:

I got to say that HDL-only projects are the easiest to migrate - I can't remember ever having problems during migration

I agree with this, in general. But Vivado 2019.1 ( or was it 2019.2 ? ) changed the way that it handled the IP database, so any old code using any Xilinx IP got broken. Not a huge deal;  I just had to re-created the IP. This includes basic IP like MMCM, BRAM based memory, etc.  I've had the experience of FIFO IP eliminating a feature that old HDL code depended on. That's why many companies never use FPGA vendor IP at all.

Most of the problems I've had lately resolve around IP, particularly FIFOs, that get broken in newer tool versions. Fortunately, Xilinx doesn't make such drastic changes that often. We'll ignore the really old ISE versions for this discussion.

Recently, while trying to use demo projects from an FMC mezzanine card vendor, all board design, I've discovered that the "same" IP instantiated in a board design can be quite different than when instantiated in and HDL. I mention this to point out that when you never use a particular design flow, ( in my case board design ) you might be apt to make incorrect assumptions about the tools.

Edited December 12, 2021 by zygot

[asmi]

1 hour ago, zygot said:

I agree with you ( about wanting to clear up posts that are confusing or just plain wrong) ... and hate to inform you that this statement, from you, is incorrect. I own 2 different boards made by and sold by Digilent that require a device licence..... both Kintex based. Of course you know this according to your previous post.

I said "All US+ boards", not all boards. US+ means UltraScale+, and Kintex-7 is not UltraScale+.