The Vitis target platforms can be customized with unique hardware and software components. There are two general types of platforms: fixed platforms and extensible platforms. The first type of platform supports embedded software development and it is a direct analog to the hardware definition file that was previously used for software development with the Xilinx SDK tool. The second type of platform supports application acceleration, and it includes hardware for supporting acceleration kernels, controlling AI Engine for Versal™ ACAP, and software for a target running Linux and the Xilinx Runtime (XRT) library. For more information on the XRT library, see https://github.com/Xilinx/XRT.
The following figure shows the traditional SDK flow for embedded software application development. A Xilinx Shell Archive (XSA) is exported from the Vivado® Design Suite. It is used by SDK for board support package (BSP) generation and creating software applications that apply the BSP.
The following figure shows the Vitis embedded software development flow that supersedes SDK from 2019.2 onwards. The hardware specification is now referred to as the XSA and is exported from a Vivado design but is formatted differently and has a .xsa filename extension. The Vitis core tools create a platform, BSP, and software boot components such as the FSBL and PMU firmware for this type of PMU firmware for fixed XSA and are associated with the Vitis platform. Software applications targeting the platform can then be developed with the Vitis core tools and do not require Linux and the XRT library. See the Vitis Embedded Software Development Flow Documentation in the Vitis Unified Software Platform Documentation (UG1416) for more information.
For product developers who want to accelerate their applications, platforms with hardware and software components that support acceleration kernels can be created with the Vitis core tools. The Vivado Design Suite is used to generate and write a second type of XSA containing a few additional IP blocks and metadata to support kernel connectivity. The following figure shows the acceleration software development flow.
The Vitis core tool supports application development in multiple languages ( OpenCL™ , C, C++) but the applications must target a Vitis target platform. A target platform consists of hardware and software components as shown in the following figure. The target platform view on the left side of the page is for the Vitis embedded software development flow, whereas the right side of page shows a platform that supports acceleration kernels. The differences include acceleration kernel requirements of a target with Linux + XRT, metadata, and kernel interface declarations.
