Remote access

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This article is specially made for remote access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contents

Using https://view.uio.no to access the UiOs services

  1. For the best user experience, we recommend download VMware on your own laptop. Follow the instructions on this guide.
  2. When you're logged in, you should be able to find the instance called "Ifi Digital Electronics". Start the instance by double clicking it. See icon in Figure 1.
  3. Now you can find Vivado, Vitis or Questa in "Applications" or launch from the terminal.
Warning! Store stuff on M-drive or github.uio.no.
Figure 1: Ifi Digital Electronics icon

Use-case: Xilinx Suite

The full version of Xilinx software used in in3160 and in5200 is only accessible at UiO's hosts. To access the tools, follow these steps.

  1. Follow the steps in the above section.
  2. Open Vivado 2020.2, Vitis 2020.2, Vitis HLS 2020.2 or Questa 2019.4.

See example in Figure 2. If you don't have an assigned computer or the assigned computer is overloaded you can use:

ssh -Y login.ifi.uio.no

Remember to set up the .bashrc file as described here to make it work.

Figure 2: Running Vivado on VMware

Special setup on LISP

To be able to program ZedBoards, and see motor and 7-segment display, do the following:

  1. Follow the steps in the first section.
  2. To access the the Xilinx tools, ssh to a IFI computer: ssh -Y <assigned_host>.ifi.uio.no
  3. In the terminal use the premade alias zedboard-webcam to be able to monitor the ZedBoard. Note: Only one user at a time can use zedboard-webcam at a time, so remember to exit when you are finished.
  4. On the assigned hosts you should be able to program the ZedBoard. See example in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Running Vivado and zedboard-webcam on LISP

Alternativly, you can ssh directly from your own computer. To be able to get GUI aplications running, remember the -Y flag. On Windows you're required to use PuTTy and on MacOS we recommend XQuartz. Not that we don't recommend this method as it depends on the setup of your local machine. Hence, we won't necessarily give support if you don't manage to set it up.

"Zedboard" commands
Zedboard-webcam  Displays the webcamera showing the zedboard connected to the computer 
Zedboard-wipe    Wipes the board (use this before leaving the machine)
Zedboard-test    Displays a testpattern on the seven segment display. Should be readable.

Note that programming the zedboard (wipe/test or other) takes at least 15 seconds

Optional: TCL script for programming a board

If you are able to generate your .bit file on your own PC, you can choose to program the zedboards on LISP without starting the graphical user interface for vivado.

# Connect to the Digilent Cable on localhost:3121
open_hw_manager
connect_hw_server -url localhost:3121
#current_hw_target [get_hw_targets */xilinx_tcf/Digilent/12345] Alternative but not as flexible
current_hw_target [lindex [get_hw_targets] 0]
open_hw_target

# Program the Device
current_hw_device [lindex [get_hw_devices] 1]
set_property PROGRAM.FILE {./my_file.bit} [lindex [get_hw_devices] 1] 

program_hw_devices [lindex [get_hw_devices] 1]
refresh_hw_device [lindex [get_hw_devices] 1]

Store these lines in "my_scipt.tcl", and change "my_file.bit" to the bitfile name in use. Then program the board by running the command:

vivado -mode batch -source my_script.tcl
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