From the Flow Navigator, select the Build All command under the Software Emulation header. The tool will alert you that some components have not been built, and would you like to build them. Select Yes to proceed. After the build is complete you can review the Reports under the Link and Package headings. The reports offer a summary view as well as additional details of the build process.
TIP: In the Vitis unified IDE the Software Emulation build is specifically designed to run on the x86 processor, regardless of the platform selected as described in Embedded Processor Emulation Using PS on x86.
The build process involves both linking and packaging the system design. The linking process uses the following command as described in Linking the System:
The packaging process uses the following command as described in Packaging the System.
After linking and packaging you are almost set to run emulation. However, the Vitis unified IDE requires a launch configuration to run the system. You can create a launch configuration in one of a number of ways. In the Vitis Components Explorer expand the System project Settings folder and click to open the launch.json file.
Click on the + New Launch Configuration and select Software Emulation to create a new launch configuration.
In the Flow Navigator select Run under the Software Emulation heading to run the application.
Software emulation is the first step to building and testing the system in a functional process. The software emulation runs the PS application as an x86 process. The main advantage of running the PS application on x86 is that it does not require QEMU and Linux to boot up, therefore the software emulation runs faster.