Here is a maintained list of our step-by-step online tutorials and examples for the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA based on the XUPV2P Development Board from Digilent. The following tutorials guide the user through various FPGA designs that combine the PowerPC with custom user logic peripherals.

Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS) Tutorials for XUPV2P

The following tutorials develop working embedded projects that employ the Microblaze soft processor. They are developed using EDK.

• Timer with Interrupts

  Overview In this tutorial we will improve on the Timer peripheral developed in Create a Simple Timer Peripheral. The improvement is achieved by enabling the peripheral to generate an interrupt when the timer expires. The PowerPC then processes the i...

• Aurora Transceiver for the PLB

  Overview In this tutorial we will create a peripheral containing the Aurora core to implement a high speed serial transceiver with a RocketIO MGT. It will be an improved version of the Aurora transceiver developed in the tutorial titled Create an Auro...

• Known Issues

  Below we describe various problems with the XUPV2P board and/or XPS software, and the solution or work-around. No Vista Support for 9.1 or Older Presently, the EDK and ISE platforms versions 9.1 and older do not support Vista. You must upgrade to v...

• Create an Aurora Transceiver

  Overview In this tutorial we will create a peripheral containing the Aurora core to implement a high speed serial transceiver with a RocketIO MGT. The peripheral can be used to connect two XUPV2P boards using the SATA connectors and transfer data be...

• Other Tutorials and Examples

  Here are links to some useful tutorials and examples hosted on other websites, including Xilinx: Xilinx EDK Concepts, Tools, and Techniques A Hands-on Guide to Effective Embedded System Design Xilinx Creating an OPB IPIF-based IP and Using it ...

• Integrating a VHDL Design into a Peripheral

  Overview This tutorial is similar to the previous one titled: Integrating a Blackbox into a Peripheral however in this case, instead of integrating an .ngc file into a peripheral, we integrate one or more VHDL files. Sometimes we have a VHDL design ...

• Integrating a Blackbox into a Peripheral

  Overview Sometimes we have an .ngc file from CORE Generator (or some other source) that we would like to bring into EDK as a peripheral. This project is a simple example of integrating a blackbox design into a peripheral generated by the Peripheral ...

• Create a Simple Timer Peripheral

  Overview In this project, we will add code to a peripheral template generated by the Peripheral Wizard to create a simple timer. The timer peripheral will be used by the PowerPC to make the LEDs flash with a fixed period. Figure: The Timer pe...

• XUPV2P Library Files

  To develop projects in XPS for the XUPV2P board it is necessary to copy the XUPV2P library files into a directory on the C drive of your computer. These files contain software libraries and hardware specific information for the XUPV2P board that are ne...

• Create a Peripheral using the Peripheral Wizard

  Overview In this tutorial we will create a simple project that uses our own IP core (instead of using the General Purpose IO core provided by Xilinx) to read from the DIP switches and write to the LEDs. The software application will display the DIP ...

• Manually Add a Peripheral to a Project

  Overview In the previous example, we created a project using the BSB and all of the work related to the hardware design was done by the BSB. In this example, we will create the same simple project, but this time we will add the GPIO for the LEDs man...

• Create a Project Using the Base System Builder

  Tutorial Overview In this example, we will create a simple project using the Base System Builder that includes three peripherals: the RS232 UART and two GPIOs. One GPIO will be used for the DIP switches and the other for the LEDs. We will then use a...

Tutorials and Examples
The examples on this website are provided in a tutorial form. Each tutorial guides the user through the entire process of building a working project from “scratch”. The tutorials guide the user through all steps, with explanations, screen shots and source code. Each tutorial extends or builds on the concepts developed in the previous tutorials. It is recommended that beginners follow the tutorials in sequence.

Scope and Requirements
The projects on this website all involve use of the PowerPC microprocessors and interfacing them with peripherals developed in VHDL. It is assumed that the reader has a basic understanding of the C programming language and VHDL. All debugging is done through the RS232 port of the XUPV2P Development Board. It is therefore necessary that the user have a PC with an RS232 port (comport/serial port) or RS232-to-USB converter, and a copy of Hyperterminal or other terminal program. For the required Hyperterminal settings, click here.