current_hw_device - 2020.2 English

Get or set the current hardware device

Syntax

current_hw_device [‑quiet] [‑verbose] [<hw_device>]

Returns

hardware device

Usage

Name	Description
`[-quiet]`	Ignore command errors
`[-verbose]`	Suspend message limits during command execution
`[<hw_device>]`	hardware device to set as current; optional

Description

Set or return the current Xilinx FPGA targeted by the Hardware Manager in the Vivado Design Suite for programming and debug.

The hardware target is a system board containing a JTAG chain of one or more Xilinx devices that you can program with a bitstream file, or use to debug your design. Connections between hardware targets on the system board and the Vivado Design Suite are managed by the hw_server application, and the connect_hw_server command. Refer to Vivado Design Suite User Guide: Programming and Debugging (UG908) for a list of supported JTAG download cables and devices.

Each hardware target can have one or more Xilinx devices to program, or to use for debugging purposes. The current device is specified or returned by the current_hw_device command.

To access a Xilinx FPGA through the Hardware Manager, you must use the following Tcl command sequence:

open_hw - Opens the Hardware Manager in the Vivado Design Suite.
connect_hw_server - Makes a connection to a local or remote Xilinx hardware server application.
current_hw_target - Defines the hardware target of the connected server.
open_hw_target - Opens a connection to the hardware target.
current_hw_device - Specifies the Xilinx FPGA to use for programming and debugging.

After connecting to the appropriate hardware device, you can program the device with a bitstream file using the program_hw_device command, and debug the device using any of a number of Hardware Manager Tcl commands. To interactively debug the device open the Hardware Manager in the Vivado Design Suite IDE.

Important: You can use the current_hw_server, current_hw_target, and current_hw_device commands to set the hardware for programming and debugging the design. You should exercise care when using these commands to insure that the current server, target, and device are in sync. The current device should be found on the current target, which should be found on the current server.

This command returns the current hardware device as an object, or returns an error if it fails.

Arguments

-quiet - (Optional) Execute the command quietly, returning no messages from the command. The command also returns TCL_OK regardless of any errors encountered during execution.

Note: Any errors encountered on the command-line, while launching the command, will be returned. Only errors occurring inside the command will be trapped.

-verbose - (Optional) Temporarily override any message limits and return all messages from this command.

Note: Message limits can be defined with the set_msg_config command.

<hw_device> - (Optional) Specify the hw_device object to set as the current device for programming and debug. The hw_device must be specified as an object as returned by the get_hw_devices command. If the hardware device is not specified, the current_hw_device will be returned.

Example

The following example returns the currently targeted hw_device:

current_hw_device

This example sets the current_hw_device object, then sets the PROGRAM.FILE property for the device, and programs the device:

current_hw_device [lindex [get_hw_devices] 0]  
set_property PROGRAM.FILE {C:/Data/design.bit} [current_hw_device]  
program_hw_devices [current_hw_device]