Configuration Image Size - Configuration Image Size - UG860

Spartan UltraScale+ FPGAs Configuration User Guide (UG860)
Document_ID
UG860
Release_Date
2026-07-27
Revision
v1.3 English

Spartan UltraScale+ FPGAs use a proprietary programmable device image (PDI) file format to boot and configure. The AMD Vivado development platform generates the PDI. For more information on the PDI, see Design Tools.

The programmable device image (PDI) includes a fixed implementation of the boot header and the platform loader and manager (plm.elf), and a user design programmable logic (PL) configuration data (.rcdo). The maximum size for a specific device PDI image can be affected by PDI generation options, such as compression. Compressed images can change in size between design iterations so memory space should be reserved for the full uncompressed PDI size. In addition, security features can affect the image size. For security features, a general guideline would be to triple the boot and PL contributors for an image size estimation.

The PDI file format estimated sizes should be considered during system architecture planning to ensure there is enough storage capacity. See Table 1 and Table 2 for an estimation on non-secure PDI sizes.
Table 1. Estimated Maximum Size for Boot Header PLM Contributors to PDI Size
PDI Contributor Maximum Size (bits)
Boot Header 6,656
PLM (.elf) for SU10P, SU25P, SU35P 331,776
PLM (.elf) for SU45P, SU60P, SU65P, SU100P, SU150P, SU200P 593,920
Table 2. Estimated Maximum Uncompressed Size for PL Contributor to PDI Size
Device PL Configuration Maximum Size (bits)
SU10P 10,606,464
SU25P 10,606,464
SU35P 10,606,464
SU45P 19,922,944
SU60P 19,922,944
SU65P 29,360,128
SU100P 29,360,128
SU150P 57,817,728
SU200P 57,817,728