Methodology Overview - 2024.2 English - XD100

Vitis Tutorials: AI Engine Development (XD100)

Document ID
XD100
Release Date
2024-12-06
Version
2024.2 English

The following figure shows a high-level representation of the development methodology based on the Vitis environment design flow.

Vitis_Environment_Design_flow

The Vitis environment development methodology reflects the heterogeneous nature of Versal adaptive SoC systems, which typically consist of PS, PL and AI Engine functionality. Using the Vitis tools, you can develop and verify these components independently and gradually integrate them to form the final system.

The foundation of the Vitis environment design methodology is an iterative approach and parallel development. As a result, AMD strongly recommends the following best practices:

  • Develop the adaptable subsystem and the custom platform in parallel.

  • Debug and verify the AI Engine graph and each of the PL kernels individually before proceeding with integration.

  • Use a standard AMD platform (such as the VCK190) to integrate and verify the adaptable subsystem comprised of the AI Engine graph and PL kernels before targeting the custom platform and ensure performance goals are met at each stage of the flow.

    • AMD platforms are pre-verified and ready to be deployed on hardware. By using an AMD standard base platform, developers of AI Engine graphs and PL kernels can verify the adaptable subsystem using simulation or hardware boards without the uncertainties and the complexities of the custom platform.

  • Develop and verify the custom platform.

  • Integrate the subsystem with the custom platform and test the integration.

The steps in this tutorial are tightly coupled with the recommended best practices and introduce you to a complete end-to-end flow for a Linux-based host application for AI Engines and PL kernels using a base platform. You can then create a custom platform and re-target the design using the custom platform.

IMPORTANT: Before beginning the tutorial, make sure that you have read and followed the Vitis Software Platform Release Notes (v2024.2) for setting up software and installing the VCK190 base platform.