Build instructions

Source code

The source code for the reference design is managed on this Github repository:

• https://github.com/fpgadeveloper/2x-qsfp28-fmc

To get the code, you can follow the link and use the Download ZIP option, or you can clone it using this command:

git clone https://github.com/fpgadeveloper/2x-qsfp28-fmc.git

License requirements

The design uses the Versal Integrated MRMAC, which requires a (free, no-cost) license to generate a bitstream. The license can be obtained from the AMD Xilinx Licensing site. The VCK190 target also requires the Vivado Enterprise Edition (a 30-day evaluation license is available from the AMD Xilinx Licensing site).

Additionally, some designs use IP cores that are licensed separately from the Vivado edition itself (for example: TEMAC, XXV Ethernet, HDMI). The IP License column in the tables below indicates the designs that require such a license to generate a bitstream; evaluation licenses are generally available from AMD for testing.

Target designs

This repo contains one or more designs that target the supported development board(s) and their FMC connectors. The table below lists the target design name, the QSFP28 ports supported by the design and the FMC connector on which to connect the mezzanine card.

100G designs

These designs drive each QSFP28 port as a single 100GbE (CAUI-4) channel.

Target board	Target design	Ports	FMC Slot	Vivado Edition	IP License
VCK190	vck190_fmcp1	2x	FMCP1	Enterprise	Required

Notes:

1. The Vivado Edition column indicates which designs are supported by the Vivado Standard Edition, the FREE edition which can be used without a license. Vivado Enterprise Edition requires a license, however a 30-day evaluation license is available from the AMD Xilinx Licensing site.

2. Regardless of the Vivado Edition, the Versal Integrated MRMAC requires a (free) license to generate a bitstream.

Cross-platform build runner

All builds are driven by the build.py runner at the root of the repository, on both Windows and Linux — the build instructions are the same for the two operating systems. Each command builds whatever it depends on automatically, skips anything that is already built, and locates the AMD tools itself, so there is no need to source the settings scripts beforehand.

On Linux and on Windows (git bash), commands are run with the build.sh shim, which finds a suitable Python 3 automatically (including the interpreter bundled with the AMD tools). Windows users who prefer not to use git bash can run the same commands from Command Prompt or PowerShell using build.bat instead — the commands and arguments are otherwise identical, for example build.bat xsa --target <target>.

To see the available targets and the state of a build:

./build.sh list                       # list the targets and their attributes
./build.sh status --target <target>   # show the per-stage artifact state
./build.sh clean --target <target>    # delete a target's generated outputs

Note

The embedded Linux images (PetaLinux) can only be built on a native Linux machine; everything else builds on Windows too. On Windows, the runner refuses the Linux-only stages up front and prints the exact command to run on the Linux machine. For Versal targets on Windows, the runner also verifies that the project path fits within the 260-character Windows path limit before building, and explains the subst workaround if it does not.

Attention

The legacy make interface described in previous versions of this documentation still works on Linux — each Makefile is now a thin wrapper around build.sh — but it is deprecated and will be removed at the next version update.

Build Vivado project

This single command creates the Vivado project, generates the bitstream and exports the hardware to an XSA file:

./build.sh xsa --target <target>

Valid targets are: vck190_fmcp1.

If you want the Vivado project and block design without generating a bitstream — for example, to explore or modify the design in the Vivado GUI — run ./build.sh project --target <target> instead, then open the project from Vivado/<target>/.

Build PetaLinux

The PetaLinux build requires a native Linux machine (one of the supported Linux distributions) with PetaLinux Tools 2025.2 installed. The runner locates and sources the PetaLinux settings.sh itself, and builds the Vivado XSA first if it does not already exist:

./build.sh petalinux --target <target>

Valid targets for PetaLinux are: vck190_fmcp1.

The output products are written to PetaLinux/<target>/images/linux/.

PetaLinux offline build

If you need to build the PetaLinux projects offline (without an internet connection), you can follow these instructions.

1. Download the sstate-cache artefacts from the Xilinx downloads site (the same page where you downloaded PetaLinux tools). There are four of them:

   • aarch64 sstate-cache (for ZynqMP designs)

   • arm sstate-cache (for Zynq designs)

   • microblaze sstate-cache (for Microblaze designs)

   • Downloads (for all designs)

2. Extract the contents of those files to a single location on your hard drive, for this example we’ll say /home/user/petalinux-sstate. That should leave you with the following directory structure:

   /home/user/petalinux-sstate
                             +---  aarch64
                             +---  arm
                             +---  downloads
                             +---  microblaze
   

3. Create a text file called offline.txt in the PetaLinux directory of the project repository. The file should contain a single line of text specifying the path where you extracted the sstate-cache files. In this example, the contents of the file would be:

   /home/user/petalinux-sstate
   

   It is important that the file contain only one line and that the path is written with NO TRAILING FORWARD SLASH.

The PetaLinux builds will then be configured for offline build.

Build everything

This builds everything that the target supports — the Vivado project and XSA and the PetaLinux image — and gathers the boot images into bootimages/*.zip:

./build.sh all --target <target>
./build.sh all --target all      # every target in the repo

On Windows, all builds everything that the host can build and reports the Linux-only stages as BLOCKED rather than failing.