ARM64 + FPGA and more: Linux on the Xilinx ZynqMP

ARM64 + FPGA and more: Linux on the Xilinx ZynqMP

FOSDEM 2018

The Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC (aka ZynqMP) is a powerful and complex chip featuring 64-bit cores, 32-bit realtime cores, a large FPGA, a GPU, video codecs and dedicated power management and security units.

Luca will first give a brief overview of the hardware architecture and how it differs from other SoCs.

Then he will explain with technical details how Linux can fully leverage the SoC resources. FPGA and booting issues will be covered in detail, but using the hardware accelerators and software support will also be discussed.

The main topics covered will be:

• Overview of the hardware.
• Available software support from Xilinx and from the community.
• How the peculiar CPU+FPGA design effectively allows to design "your own SoC", with the technical steps to implement this with Linux.
• Why booting is nontrivial on this SoC and the currently available ways to boot Linux.
• Handling the H.264/H.265 hardware codecs.
• GPU support issues.

Focus will be given to how much open source technologies can be used with the ZynqMP SoCs, why this matters, and the current status of open source resources with respect to the alternatives.

Speakers: Luca Ceresoli