Embed MicroBlaze onto NI FPGA based boards

[nobitut]

Below are 4 versions of how to embed MicroBlaze onto NI FPGA boards. You're not required to follow all of the instructions or download both of the attachments

Embed MicroBlaze onto NI FPGA based boards with LabVIEW 2013SP1 and COREGEN

Introduction

We introduce the combination of COREGEN flow and LabVIEW FPGA flow to allow users write their C code applications on MicroBlaze^TM processors on National Instrument FPGA based boards.

Requirements

• LabVIEW + LabVIEW FPGA   (Version 2013SP1)
• NI-RIO drivers (13.0 or later)
• NI FPGA based hardware
  • Should be compatible with any R-series, FlexRIO, sbRIO ,cRIO boards  and myRIO.
• Xilinx SDK 14.4
• MicroBlaze_nilabsV2_2_1.zip

Installation:

1. Download and unzip attached MicroBlaze_nilabsV2_2_1.zip
2. Follow the installation steps in Readme.txt

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Embed MicroBlaze onto NI FPGA based boards with LabVIEW 2013 and COREGEN

Introduction

We introduce the combination of COREGEN flow and LabVIEW FPGA flow to allow users write their C code applications on MicroBlaze^TM processors on National Instrument FPGA based boards.

Requirements

• LabVIEW + LabVIEW FPGA   (Version 2013)
• NI-RIO drivers (13.0)
• NI FPGA based hardware
  • Should be compatible with any R-series, FlexRIO, sbRIO ,cRIO boards  and myRIO.
• Xilinx SDK 14.4
• MicroBlaze_nilabsV2_2.zip

Installation:

1. Download and unzip attached MicroBlaze_nilabsV2_2.zip
2. Follow the installation steps in Readme.txt

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Embed MicroBlaze onto NI FPGA based boards with LabVIEW 2012 and COREGEN

Introduction

We introduce the combination of COREGEN flow and LabVIEW FPGA flow to allow users write their C code applications on MicroBlaze^TM processors on National Instrument FPGA based boards.

Requirements

• LabVIEW + LabVIEW FPGA   (Version 2012)
• NI-RIO drivers (12.0)
• PXIe-7965R
  • Should be compatible with any R-series, FlexRIO, sbRIO ,cRIO boards .
• Xilinx SDK 13.4
• MB-NILabsV2.zip

Installation:

1. Download and unzip attached MB-NILabsV2.zip
2. Follow the installation steps in Readme.txt

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Embed Microblaze onto NI Virtex 5 based boards. Older version with LabVIEW FPGA 2009

Introduction

We introduce the combination of Xilinx EDK flow and LabVIEW FPGA flow to allow users write and debug their C code applications on EDK-based MicroBlaze^TM processors on National Instrument R-series boards.

Requirements

• LabVIEW + LabVIEW FPGA   (Version 2012)
• Xilinx ISE 10.1i
• Xilinx EDK 10.1i
• NI-RIO drivers (3.2)
• PXI-7852R , PXI-7953R (Should also be compatible with PXI-785xR and PXI-795xR but has not been tested as of the writing of this document)
• Xilinx USB JTAG(Optional for debugging)

Installation

1. Download and unzip the attached MB.zip
2. Follow the installation steps in ReadMe.txt

[tkreider]

I have a modified version of this example running on a PXI-7854R.  It makes a convinent platform to run code that has to be more tightly coupled to the FPGA than is allowed through cPCI back to a NI LV-RT controller.

[John80]

Any updated version that works with later versions of the Xilinx tools?

Also, anybody out there running a TCP/IP stack such as lwIP on a MicroBlaze Processor using LabVIEW?

Awesome posting, thanks to NI Labs for releasing this.

[Jabba]

I try to follow the steps in the link documents. For my sample, I did not use the debugger (No debug at project startup). Every time I compile the Lv VI, Xilinx returns at the end a "Timing Violation" for "40 MHz Onboard Clock", as detailed below :

40 MHz Onboard Clock: 40,41 MHz (0,41 MHz maximum)

Any idea ? Thanks for your help.

[nobitut]

Thanks for your all interest in this.  I currently have no plan to support in the shipping LabVIEW FPGA 2010  as well as Xillinx 11.5 version. However , you can email me about specific request.  my email is trung.n.tran@ni.com.

[nobitut]

Hi Jabba,

Thanks for your interest. It seems the problem may come from the clock input for the MicroBlaze system . Could you please contact me at trung.n.tran@ni.com  and send me related files ( MHS files , the labVIEW project and VIs) of your system .

[Jabba]

Hi,

It seems I can't reach you through your email. Any mistake in the your mail's adress?

[laurent.moss]

This posting opens up a world of possibilities for hardware/software codesign targeting NI FPGA-based boards. We just published a C/C++-based ESL flow for NI FPGA-based boards that leverages the MicroBlaze embedding capabilities presented in this posting.

[SwanOnChips]

Thanks for posting the link to your HW/SW codesign technology page.

ALL - I added helpful links as a comment to the page which Laurent Moss includes in his comment, above. Included is a link to a Demo and a Presentation via WebEx. Just visit the link in Laurent's comment above, and look for my comment with the additional links.

[John80]

Any updates for supporting LabVIEW 2014 SP1?

I tried running the patch for LabVIEW 2013 SP1 on my LabVIEW 2014 SP1 machine and it stopped complaining about the version.

[nobitut]

Thanks for your interest , I will update the release for 2014 SP1 soon.

[John80]

I'm almost there in getting things to work with LabVIEW 2013 SP1.

I was wondering if you had the source to the Xilinx SDK project that you used? I want to make sure I am using it correctly.

Also, if you want any help updating the MicroBlaze patch, please make a repo on NI's github and I'd be very happy to join in on the fun

[John80]

I got my first MicroBlaze C++ project running on the PXI-7953R board, I will write it up as nicely as I can and share it on github.com soon.

Thanks for posting this info here!

[John80]

Any updates for LabVIEW 2016?

[John80]

So a lot of time has passed, and I have become an expert in LabVIEW FPGA and MicroBlaze together.

Anyway, here is a github repo that uses LabVIEW FPGA, MicroBlaze and a UART to communicate:

https://github.com/JohnStratoudakis/MicroBlaze_UART

And my question is - has anybody gotten the MicroBlaze Debug Module to work from LabVIEW? I have been looking around and it seems like a lot of reading to figure this one out...