This page is a getting started guide providing walkthrough style examples using the AMD Embedded Development Framework (EDF). It covers initial board setup and running a pre-built disk image. For other personas and tasks, see the relevant page linked from https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250585728.

Introduction

This section walks the user through the Discovery and Evaluation persona within AMD EDF, which covers initial board setup and exploration using a pre-built image. See other persona pages for on target development, deployment options, and custom flows.

All Persona: https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250585728

Discovery and Evaluation - Booting the board for the first time and exploration

System Controller Enabled Evaluation Boards - System Controller Firmware Update

Evaluation boards that have a System Controller (SC) may require the SC firmware and BEAM application to be updated to the latest version to support functionality required by the AMD Embedded Development Framework, and the following tutorials.

System Controller might be used to program the OSPI / QSPI flash used by the target device (primary boot device)
See the System Controller Wiki evaluation board user guide for more information https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AYCGhw

AMD EDF 25.05 (VEK385 EA) - AMD Vivado™ Design Suite 2025.1

The System Controller Firmware on VEK385 Rev B Evaluation Boards might require updating to the latest version to enable programming of the target OSPI (AMD Versal™ AI Edge Series Gen 2 Primary Boot Device)

Download and install the latest System Controller Firmware from the System Controller Wiki or VEK385 lounge (if not available on the System Controller Wiki).
See also the System Controller Wiki and the evaluation board user guide for more information https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AYCGhw

How to Boot a Board Using the Pre-built Images

Basic board setup - Interfaces and power up

For evaluation board specific interface details, see the following pages. The VEK385 is used as an example below.

https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284

The basic board setup is as follows (the VEK385 is used as example below):

Connect the external power supply to the "Power Input" connector
Connect the USB-Type C connector labeled "FTDI USB" to the host PC
Connect the RJ-45 Ethernet for DUT SoC to the local network
Connect the RJ-45 Ethernet for the System Controller (this might be labeled "SC Ethernet") to the local network

Picture (VEK385)

Powering the Board

Connect the board external power supply to an outlet, plug in the external supply to the board, and turn the board on with the power switch (the VEK385 is shown below as an example):

UART Connections: FTDI-USB

Evaluation boards have multiple UART connections. When the FTDI-USB cable is plugged in, it will create multiple device nodes on the host PC.

For example, VEK385 Rev B has 4 serial / UART interfaces mapped as follows:

Device 0 (JTAG)
Device 1 (Versal™ PS-UART1)
Device 2 (Versal™ PS-UART0)
Device 3 (System Controller UART)

For evaluation board specific interface details, see:

https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284/Board+specific+specifications+and+information#VEK385-UART-connections---FTDI-USB

VEK385 SC UART - VEK385 Rev B Evaluation Boards

Versal PS-UART1 is used by the primary user software, U-Boot and Linux® it can be directly accessed by the host PC via the FTDI UART.

Versal PS-UART0 is used by default for auxiliary software (PLM, ASU, RPU) and in Rev B of the VEK385, PS-UART0 will be directly accessible via the FTDI-USB interface.

How to boot a board using the pre-built images: Multi-stage boot (QSPI / OSPI -> UFS/SD) - Setup

This section is for evaluation boards that support the EDF Default boot Architecture - multi-stage boot with deferred PL Load (VEK385 Rev B)

Writing the EDF boot firmware to the primary boot device / media using System Controller (SC)

AMD Production Evaluation Boards might not have the latest boot firmware pre-programmed

The following Evaluation boards require boot firmware to be programmed (they are not pre-populated) or updated to the latest available

Early Access (EA), Engineering Sample (ES) Evaluation Boards

If your evaluation board does not have a system controller the OSPI/QSPI can also be programed by using the AMD Vivado™ Design Suite

For more details, see the evaluation board user guide.

Connect the FTDI-USB cable to the host PC. This will provide serial console interfaces to the PC as well as JTAG access to the Versal device.
Connect the System Controller (SC) Ethernet interface to a network accessible by the host PC.

For board specific interface detail see https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284/Board+specific+specifications+and+information#VEK385

On power up, the System Controller (SC) should boot and automatically start the BEAM tool, which can be accessed via a web-interface at the IP address it notes.

System Controller Start

amd-edf login:
****************************************
*                                      *
*         BEAM Tool Web Address        *
*                                      *
*         http://10.10.71.1            *
*         http://amd-edf               *
*                                      *
****************************************

The BEAM interface landing page is shown below.

If the Versal Device Control option is not visible, please update the System Controller Image and Application - https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/2273738753

You should see the welcome screen as shown in the image. This will install the necessary drivers and support files required to connect and manage the evaluation board.

If the board support files are already installed, the welcome screen will not be displayed. Instead, you will see the board details screen directly. In this case, you can skip the 'Install Board Support' step, as it is not required

Click on "Install Board Support:

On the right side of the screen, click the Install Board Support button.
This will install the necessary drivers and support files required to connect and manage the evaluation board.

Wait for Installation:

The tool will begin installing the board support files. Wait for the process to complete.
Once the installation is successful, the tool will be ready to detect and connect to the board.

Board Details Screen:

The BEAM Tool should automatically detect the connected board.
Once the board is connected, the tool will display the board details (e.g., board name, serial number, etc.).
You can now proceed with further operations
To load the OSPI, select Versal Device Control.

Then use the Choose File option under the Upload OSPI: menu and select Load OSPI aligned with the image uploaded.

For image file names see https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284/Board+specific+specifications+and+information#Boot-firmware-Images---OSPI-VEK385----boot-firmware-%2B-boot.pdi%3A
For downloads links for pre-built images see - https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586438/Downloads+and+Release+Notes#OSPI-Images:

Select the Program checkbox under the Load OSPI section.
If you want to verify the OSPI image after programming, select the Verify checkbox
Click the Apply button to start programming the OSPI flash memory.
Wait for the programming process to complete.

Once complete, the BEAM tool will return a success message.

If this process fails consult your FAE.

Verify the programmed OSPI works and boots to U-Boot successfully by monitoring the FTDI-UART output after a power cycle: https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284

Set the boot mode switch (SW1 on VEK385, VEK280, VCK190) to QSPI / OSPI boot, and confirm the boot is successful.

SW 1 Boot Mode switch settings

See the board specific information / board user guide for more details and AMD EDF Board specific specifications and information/flows for information on other supported evaluation boards: https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284/Board+specific+specifications+and+information#VEK385-Default-DIP-switch-settings---boot, AMD Technical Information Portal

	Mode Pins [0:3]	Mode SW1 [1:4]

	Mode Pins [0:3]	Mode SW1 [1:4]
SDCARD Boot (SD1)	0111	ON, OFF, OFF, OFF
OSPI / QSPI Boot	0001	ON, ON, ON, OFF
JTAG Boot	0000	ON, ON, ON, ON

See the screen capture below for reference (picture is taken from a VEK385).

VEK385 SW 1 showing OSPI boot mode settings

ospi-boot-test (Taken from VEK385 boot)

Download the common EDF Linux® disk image, and write it to the secondary boot media. VEK385 Rev B uses UFS as the default storage media.

SD Boot Mode - is not supported on the VEK385 or other newer boards

See https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586438/Downloads+and+Release+Notes#Platform-Disk-Images-and-BMAP-files: for download links for the EDF Linux® common disk image for supported Evaluation Boards
See https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3258155011/Discovery+and+Evaluation+AMD+Versal+Device+Portfolio#Writing-the-EDF-Linux%C2%AE-Disk-Images-(wic)-to-the-Secondary-Boot-Media%3A-UFS-device for detail on how to write the image to the secondary boot media.

How to Boot a Board Using the Pre-built Images: Single-Stage Boot SD Mode - Setup

This section is for evaluation boards that support single step boot from SD card as the default boot mode for pre-built images (VEK280, VCK190).

Download the pre-built board specific EDF Linux disk image for SD boot for your Evaluation board, and write the image file to an to SD card

See https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586438/Downloads+and+Release+Notes#Board-Disk-Images for download links for supported Evaluation Boards
See https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3258155011/Discovery+and+Evaluation+AMD+Versal+Device+Portfolio#Writing-the-EDF-Linux%C2%AE-disk-images-(wic)-to-the-secondary-boot-media-%3A-SD-card for tools and flows to write the image to an SDCARD

After programming the SDCARD move to step https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3258155011/Discovery+and+Evaluation+AMD+Versal+Device+Portfolio#Booting-the-Board-to-Linux---Power-On

Writing the EDF Linux® Disk Images (wic) to the Secondary Boot Media: UFS device

The disk image may be -

A common disk image - Evaluation boards supporting the EDF default boot architecture - multi-stage boot with deferred PL load

See https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586438/Downloads+and+Release+Notes#Platform-Disk-Images-and-BMAP-files%3A for download links for the EDF Linux® common disk image for supported Evaluation Boards

Write the common EDF Linux® disk image to the secondary boot media.

VEK385 Rev B Board - The secondary boot media is an UFS device

Minimum UFS device size 16 GB: AMD EDF disk images require a minimum of a 16 GB UFS device to work correctly.

The .wic.ufs.xz file be written to an UFS device using web-interface Image recovery tool:

Initial Setup for UFS device:

Flash WIC Image to UFS Storage device Using Image Recovery Tool and Boot VEK385 Board in OSPI + UFS Mode

Writing the EDF Linux® Disk Images (wic) to the Secondary Boot Media: SD Card

The disk image may be -

A common disk image - Evaluation boards supporting the EDF default boot architecture - multi-stage boot with deferred PL load
A board specific disk image - Evaluation boards supporting single-stage boot from SD card

Booting the Board to Linux - Power On

Ensure that the boot mode switch is configured for the correct boot mode:

SW 1 Boot Mode switch settings

See the board-specific information / board user guide for more details and AMD EDF board-specific specifications and information / flows for information on other supported evaluation boards: https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3250586284 , AMD Technical Information Portal

	Mode Pins [0:3]	Mode SW1 [1:4]

	Mode Pins [0:3]	Mode SW1 [1:4]
SD Card Boot (SD1)	0111	ON, OFF, OFF, OFF
OSPI / QSPI Boot (multi-stage boot)	0001	ON, ON, ON, OFF
JTAG Boot	0000	ON, ON, ON, ON

See the picture below for reference (VEK385 evaluation board, SW1 - OSPI Boot )

Plug in the Micro SD card as shown below (VEK385 evaluation board, J51):

Setup UART terminals on your host PC

Power on the board to allow UARTS to be seen
On a Linux system all FTDI devices will be found in /dev/ttyUSB[X]
On a Windows host these will be COM[XX] - it will be necessary to identify the correct device node on a Windows system using the Device Manager.

Also seehttps://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/3258155011/Discovery+and+Evaluation+AMD+Versal+Device+Portfolio#Basic-board-setup---Interfaces-and-power-up

Use a terminal emulator such as PuTTY or picocom to the appropriate node.

Note - the board will need ot be

john@enho:~$ picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB1
picocom v3.1
 
port is        : /dev/ttyUSB1
flowcontrol    : none
 
<snip>
 
Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands
Terminal ready

VEK385 Fan noise

When booting the VEK385, the system fan will likely spin loudly for a few seconds but should spin down shortly. If the high fan speed persists review the Versal design used to ensure it has enabled the SysMon external I2C interface with address 0x18.

Discovery and Evaluation AMD Versal Device Portfolio

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