Getting Started with Versal AI Edge Gen2 with Vitis Unified IDE - Getting Started with Versal AI Edge Gen2 with Vitis Unified IDE - 2026.1 English - XD098

Version: Vitis 2026.1 and Vivado 2026.1

Welcome to the Vitis Getting Started tutorials for the AMD Embedded Development Framework (EDF).

These tutorials showcase the steps to build AI Engine (AIE) and High-Level Synthesis (HLS) kernels, compile a host application, and run the design in hardware emulation (QEMU) and on the board, using pre-built EDF Yocto Software Development Kit (SDK), rootfs WIC (Yocto disk image), and QEMU prebuilts instead of the legacy PetaLinux common-image flow.

The tutorials use pre-built base platforms from the Vitis installation path to compile AIE and HLS kernels. They are aligned with the AMD EDF methodology described on the official AMD EDF Wiki page.

Please read the Makefile provided in each sub-tutorial to better understand the Vitis EDF tool flow.

Note on VCK190 DFX: Dynamic Function eXchange (DFX) is not supported in the EDF flow for Vitis 2026.1. For the DFX flow, use the legacy Versal_w_PetaLinux/VCK190_dfx tutorial.

IMPORTANT: Before beginning any sub-tutorial, ensure you have:

• Installed AMD Vitis™ 2026.1 software and set PLATFORM_REPO_PATHS to <Vitis_tools>/base_platforms.

• Created a directory <path-to-design>/yocto_artifacts and exported YOCTO_ARTIFACTS to point at it:

  export YOCTO_ARTIFACTS=<path-to-design>/yocto_artifacts
  

Download the EDF Yocto artifacts for your board from the Embedded Development Framework (EDF) downloads page (package matching Vitis 2026.1):

Versal Gen1 (Cortex-A72) – VCK190, VEK280, and VRK160

• EDF Application SDK (Cortex-A72): amd-cortexa72-common_meta-edf-app-sdk. Run the installer and direct the output to ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/amd-cortexa72-common_meta-edf-app-sdk/:

  ./amd-edf-glibc-x86_64-meta-edf-app-sdk-cortexa72-cortexa53-amd-cortexa72-common-toolchain.sh \
      -d ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/amd-cortexa72-common_meta-edf-app-sdk/sdk -y
  

• EDF Platform Disk Image (Cortex-A72): amd-cortexa72-common_edf-platform-disk-image. Unzip and move into ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/.

• QEMU Prebuilt (per board):

  • VCK190: amd-cortexa72-common_vck190_qemu_prebuilt

  • VEK280: amd-cortexa72-common_vek280_qemu_prebuilt

  • VRK160: amd-cortexa72-common_vrk160_qemu_prebuilt

  Unzip and move each into ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/.

Versal Gen2 (Cortex-A78) – VEK385

• EDF Application SDK (Cortex-A78): amd-cortexa78-mali-common_meta-edf-app-sdk. Run the installer and direct the output to ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/amd-cortexa78-mali-common_meta-edf-app-sdk/sdk.sh.

• VEK385 Octal SPI (OSPI) Image: Download and move into ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/.

• EDF Platform Disk Image (Cortex-A78): amd-cortexa78-mali-common_edf-platform-disk-image (WIC). Unzip and move into ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/.

• QEMU Prebuilt (VEK385): amd-cortexa78-mali-common_vek385_qemu_prebuilt. Unzip and move into ${YOCTO_ARTIFACTS}/.

After downloading, your yocto_artifacts/ directory should contain a subdirectory per artifact. Each sub-tutorial README.md documents the exact make commands to invoke for hardware emulation (make all) and hardware run (make sd_card).

_{Copyright © 2025–2026 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.}

^{Terms and Conditions}