Vivado version compatible with Basys 3 board

[Reji Joseph]

What is the latest version of Vivado compatible with the Bassys3 board?

Also, i would like to know what is the board compatible with the latest version of Xilinx.

[JColvin]

Hi @Reji Joseph,

I'm not sure in the difference between your two questions, but the Basys 3 (in particular the embedded Artix 35T FPGA which is the main component that dictates compatibility with the Xilinx software) is compatible with any version Xilinx's Vivado software. Similarly, the board files for the Basys 3 (the process on how to download the files is explained here: https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/guides/installing-vivado-and-vitis) is compatible with any version of Vivado.

The caveat with compatibility comes with the example projects for a demo board. The example projects for the Basys 3 (https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/basys-3/start#example_projects) while HDL based, have only been verified up to Vivado 2020.1. Other projects that use a processor (such as Microblaze) or a custom IP may end up needing some additional debugging to upgrade the project to a newer version of the Vivado software.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin

[Reji Joseph]

I am going to try 2020.1. Thanks for the info.

[Reji Joseph]

I am trying to install Vivado 2022. I see different options. Enterprise Edition takes at least 43GB of hard disk space. Lab edition takes only 1.3GB. if I go with Lab Edition, will the Basys 3 boards will work?

 

[JColvin]

Hi @Reji Joseph,

It depends what you mean by "work". Lab Edition is a limited size install, mostly only giving you the Vivado Hardware manager to let you upload bitstreams to the device itself, not actually let you create a design and generate a bitstream to be uploaded. If you want to create designs of your own to be used on the Basys 3, you would need a 'regular' Vivado installation.

Unfortunately, and beyond Digilent's control, the various installs of Xilinx software needed to program Digilent's boards have grown in installation size over the years. If hard drive space is a concern (and I certainly wouldn't blame you), I would recommend installing an older version of the tools (of course selecting whatever the free version of the Xilinx tools is called in that particular version; WebPACK, ML Edition) and when selecting which device family you want to install to unselect everything besides the Artix-7 Series devices (if you end up working with more with a board that is not Artix-7 based you can always add in other device families later). The installation size will not be "small", but can certainly help you decrease the overall size.
I have more than just the Artix-7 devices installed, but for reference, some Vivado+SDK/Vitis installation sizes I have on my computer are 2018.2 ~22 GB; 2020.1 ~59 GB; 2021.2 ~ 101 GB.

Long story short, if space is a concern I would probably use 2018.2 (if only because that is a version of Vivado+SDK that we have some previously existing demos for the Basys 3). Or you could choose to install a newer version and cross your fingers that you won't need to update your Vivado installation (which in general you should not need to as far as designs go; it's mostly a matter of how much support you might get from Digilent/Xilinx as the years and versions go by and new users are encouraged by society in general to get the latest version of a product.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
JColvin