Arty Z7 remote update over ethernet?

[kris_g]

Hi everyone,

I'm new on the forums and a relative beginner with FPGA's. However, I'm working with a much more experienced colleague, and I've been asked to look into how I can update the FPGA XSA and/or the Vitis Application project over ethernet. In principle, I imagine there would be some packet sent to the board over ethernet, there would be some kind of unpacking / writing to a location in nonvolatile memory, and then the board would perform some kind of software reboot.

Is this possible, and is there a guide somewhere I can read? I've looked up and down the forums, and I'm not finding anything too close to what I'm looking for. At the most basic level, how can I update what would be loaded onto an SD card, without needing to remove the SD card physically? Thank you kindly for any help here.

[D@n]

Is this possible?

Yes.  I'm (sort of) doing it.  I have RTL that converts Ethernet packets into bus accesses.  From there, I can control my CPU, start it, stop it, step it, adjust memory, rewrite flash, and issue new configuration commands.  I have to do this because ... this FPGA will be part of a SONAR project, where the FPGA and its electronics will be placed into a sealed underwater canister, with only an Ethernet link available to debug the design with and from.

I tend to avoid Xilinx IP, so I don't know if this can be done with Xilinx IP at all or not.

Dan

[kris_g]

Thanks @D@n, I appreciate it. I'll have a look at some of the links you sent when I get a chance. I'm first gonna try the easiest thing I've found, which may be to use the xilffs.h lib to write over the SD. However, the appeal of CPU control is also interesting!