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[SOLVED] Difference between EDK,SDK, vivado and ISE

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Sunayana Chakradhar

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Hello,

I would like to the main difference between zynq 7000 devices which use vivado and the previous devices which used ISE. Also I have read in the internet that Vivado comes with SDK. What does SDK actually do?
How different is SDK from EDK. What are the major differences between ISE and Vivado? Does ISE include EDK or SDK?
 

Zynq devices are ARM socs (system on chips). They have hard ARM cores as well as FPGA fabric.
SDK = software development kit - for writing software on your ARM

The difference between ISE and Vivado is that Vivado is newer and supports the newer devices. ISE supports older devices. ISE also has an EDK and SDK.
 

Okay with regard to virtex 5, 6, spartan devices, they too have hardened processors right? Then why only for zynq do we have separate PS and PL. what is the significance of this? What was the SDK equivalent for virtex and sparten devices?
 

The ARM has hard-ip and some dedicated-ish IO. PS means the processors owns the pin and the logic as hard-ip. PL means the FPGA owns the pin. This is an attempt to simplify the circular bootstrap issue in previous designs. Basically, the application required the CPU to program the FPGA but required the FPGA to be programmed to allow the CPU to program the FPGA. Because dynamic partial reconfiguration was/is not well supported, this led to additional complexity in older designs. By giving the CPU access to key memory/flash/communications IO, this problem can be resolved.

SDK is simply tools for developing software for your board. It isn't strictly required. I don't think I've used SDK except to get a device tree (from a plugin) that I could use with buildroot.
 

Okay with regard to virtex 5, 6, spartan devices, they too have hardened processors right?
No. They don't.
 

I know that they used the PPC core on some of the older devices . But not on the newer devices. I'm pretty sure that the 6 series doesn't have a hard processor.
 

Virtex-4 came with a PPC405

Virtex-5 came with a PPC440
Capture.JPG

Virtex-6 No embedded processor
Capture2.JPG

The biggest difference with the 7-series Zynq parts is the ARM is usable without having to program the FPGA first.
 
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