EDGE

Artix 7 FPGA Development Board

User Manual
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Board Applications ............................................................................................................................ 3
Board Features .................................................................................................................................. 4
Power Supply .................................................................................................................................... 6
Programming hardware..................................................................................................................... 6
USB UART .......................................................................................................................................... 6
WIFI Communication ......................................................................................................................... 7
Bluetooth Communication................................................................................................................. 7
Slide Switches.................................................................................................................................... 8
Push Buttons ..................................................................................................................................... 9
LEDs ................................................................................................................................................ 10
Seven segment Display .................................................................................................................... 11
2x16 LCD ......................................................................................................................................... 12
Analog Input.................................................................................................................................... 13
SPI DAC ........................................................................................................................................... 14
VGA ................................................................................................................................................. 15
MicroSD Slot.................................................................................................................................... 16
Stereo Jack ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Buzzer ............................................................................................................................................. 17
HDMI / DVI ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Clock ............................................................................................................................................... 18
TFT Display ...................................................................................................................................... 18
SRAM .............................................................................................................................................. 19
20 Pin Expansion Connector / CMOS Camera Interface .................................................................... 20
Driver Installation ............................................................................................................................ 21
Programming EDGE Board Artix 7 FPGA using Vivado Design Suite .................................................. 28
Programming Quad SPI FLASH Memory using Vivado Design Suite .................................................. 30
Introduction

EDGE Artix 7 FPGA Development board is the feature rich development board with Artix 7
FPGA, SPI FLASH, SRAM, HDMI, Micro SD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ADC, DAC, LCD, 7 segment
Display, VGA, , Stereo Jack, buzzer, Push Button, Slide Switch, LED, Temperature Sensor and
LDR. The Board also provides additional interface like CMOS Camera and TFT Display at the
expansion connectors.

The EDGE board provides USB JTAG interface for Programming and Debugging. It also
provides USB UART interface.

Board Applications

 Wireless control
 Environment monitor
 IoT (Internet of Things)
 Product Prototyping
 Image Processing
  Video Processing
 Audio Processing

Board Features

 Xilinx XC7A35T-1FTG256 Artix 7 FPGA

 8MB SPI FLASH Memory
 512 KB SRAM
 HDMI Out
 Micro SD Slot
 On-Board USB JTAG Programmer
 USB to UART Interface
 WIFI Interface
 Low Power Bluetooth Interface
 12 bit VGA Interface
 8 Channel SPI ADC
 Temperature Sensor
 LDR Interface
 SPI DAC
 2×16 LCD Display
 4 Digit Seven Segment Display
 5v Buzzer
 CMOS Camera Interface
 TFT Display Interface
16-Slide Switch Wi-Fi

5-Push Buttons Bluetooth 4.0

16-LED 4 channel ADC

7 Segments DAC
Artix 7
2x16 LCD 12 bit VGA
FPGA
Buzzer USB JTAG/UART

Micro SD Slot SRAM

Stereo Jack Temp. Sensor

LDR Camera

HDMI Out SPI TFT

Block Diagram of EDGE Artix 7 FPGA Development

Board
Power Supply

EDGE Artix 7 development board can get 5V power from either USB JTAG Port U9 or
External Power Supply connector J5. Switch SW2 can be used to select the source of power
from USB or External Power Supply.

Board consist of 3 Voltage regulators 3.3v, 1.8v and 1v. The Kit requires 3.3v supply for FPGA
I/O, SRAM, Clock, USB, ADC, DAC, FLASH, and so on. The 1.8v Voltage is for FPGA
Auxiliary supply and ADC. The 1v power supply is dedicated for FPGA Core and Block RAM
voltage.

Caution: Only 5v Supply must be provided to the board either from external source or USB
connector.

Programming hardware

FPGA can be configured either from USB JTAG using Xilinx Vivado software or by on-board
SPI FLASH Memory.

FPGA configured through JTAG gets erased when the power supply is removed or by
pressing reset button SW1.

To store the data permanently on FPGA, we have to store the configuration bit file to SPI
FLASH Memory. It automatically reconfigures the FPGA after reset or Power on.

The EDGE Artix 7 FPGA Development board is fully compatible with Xilinx Vivado design
suite with on-board USB JTAG Interface.

USB UART

The EDGE Board includes FT2232H IC acts as USB UART Bridge to communicate board with
windows PC COM port interface.

The UART Transmitter and Receiver lines of FTDI chip is directly connected to the Artix 7
FPGA I/O pins for USB UART Communication.

TXD U9
C4 USB USB
RXD UART PORT
D4

Artix 7
WIFI Communication

The EDGE Board contains On-board ESP8266 12F WIFI Module connected with Artix 7 FPGA
through serial interface. The ESP WIFI Modem helps to communicate FPGA with cloud. The
Data can be stored and retrieved from the cloud with the help of AT Commands. The range
of communication for WIFI modem is 50 – 100 meter distance.

Note: To enable power supply to the WIFI Modem, place jumper at Enable and centre pin of
J3. To disable power, place jumper at Disable and centre pin of J3.

J2 connector got TX, RX and GPIO0 Line of ESP12F WiFi module for testing and firmware update.

``
TXD
G16 WIFI
RXD Modem
J15

Artix 7

Bluetooth Communication

The EDGE contains low power Bluetooth 4.0 BLE interface on-board. The Bluetooth Module
CC2541 is serially interfaced with FPGA with Transmit and Receive lines.

Note: To enable power supply to the Bluetooth Modem, place jumper at Enable and centre
pin of J4. To disable power, place jumper at Disable and centre pin of J4.

J6 connector got TX, RX and Key Line of Bluetooth module for testing and firmware update.

TXD
J16
BLUETOOTH
H14 RXD Modem

Artix 7
Slide Switches

The EDGE board includes 16 SPDT slide switches for digital input. These digital inputs are
connected to Artix 7 FPGA through resistors for protection against short circuit. Slide switch
outputs constant high or constant low based on the user changing its position.

SW3
L5
SW4
L4
SW5
M4
SW6
M2
SW7
M1
SW8
N3
SW9
N2
Artix 7

SW10
N1
SW11
P1
SW12
P4
SW13
T8
SW15
R8
SW17
N6
SW14
T7
SW16
P8
SW18
M6
Push Buttons

The Board contains 5 Push buttons for providing momentary digital inputs. They are
connected to FPGA lines through resistors to prevent short circuit. By default the switch is in
Active low. When the user pressed the push button they are driven high.

VCC

M12 SW19

L13 SW20

K13 SW21

M14 SW22

L14 SW23

Artix 7
LEDs

The Kit consists of 16 LEDs for displaying digital outputs. These LED’s are connected with
FPGA through a series resistor. Logic High signal turns ON LED and Logic Low signal turns
OFF LED to demonstrate the digital output.

D3
J3
D4
H3
D5
J1
D6
K1
D8
L3
D9
L2
D10
Artix 7

K3
D11
K2
D12
K5
D13
P6
D14
R7
D15
R6
D16
T5
D17
R5
D18
T10
D19
T9
Seven segment Display

The EDGE Board consist of 4 digit 7 segment displays with common anode. Each of the
seven segment contains LEDs can be turned on by sending active low signal.

For example, to display digit 8 in the seven segments display. All the segments are enabled
using active low ‘0’ signal.

3V3
F2 DIGIT1
E1 DIGIT2
G5
DIGIT3

G4
DIGIT4
Artix 7

A
G2
B
G1
C
H5
D
H4
E
J5
F
J4
G
H2
DP
H1
2x16 LCD

The EDGE board consist of 2x16 LCD interface at the female connector J7. LCD displays is
interfaced in the 8 bit data mode, RS pin are used to select data/command mode and En are
used to enable the LCD.

Note: R/W pin is connected to ground to keep LCD in always write mode.

GND 1
5V 2
GND 3
P5
RS 4
GND 5
T3 EN
6
D0 J7
P3 7
Artix 7

LCD
M5 D1
8 Connector
N4
D2
9
R2 D3
10
R1 D4
11
R3
D5
12
T2
D6
13
T4 D7
14
5V 15
GND 16
Analog Input

Pins 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the J13 ADC connector are used as analog inputs to the XADC module of
the Artix 7 FPGA. The FPGA expects that the inputs range from 0-1 V, so we use an external
circuit to scale down the input voltage from 3.3V. This circuit is shown in Figure. This circuit
allows the XADC module to accurately measure any voltage between 0V and 3.3V that is
applied to these pins.

The XADC core within the Artix-7 is a dual channel 12-bit analog-to-digital converter capable
of operating at 1 MSPS. Either channel can be driven by any of the two auxiliary analog
inputs connected to the DIP pins. The XADC core is controlled and accessed from a user
design via the Dynamic Reconfiguration Port (DRP). The DRP also provides access to voltage
monitors that are present on each of the FPGA’s power rails, and a temperature sensor that
is internal to the FPGA. For more information on using the XADC core, refer to the Xilinx
document titled 7 Series FPGAs and Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC XADC Dual 12-Bit 1
MSPS Analog-to-Digital Converter.

External Temperature Sensor LM35 Input is available at the 9th pin of ADC Connector. To
Connect Temperature sensor with XADC, Place a jumper between 7th and 9th pin of J13
Connector.

LDR input is available at the 10th pin of ADC Connector. To Connect LDR sensor with XADC,
Place a jumper between 8th and 10th pin of ADC Connector.

J13 ADC
Input
Connector

AD6_P AD6
B7 5
Single Ended/3.3v Input

AD6_N
A7
AD14_P AD14
B6 6
Artix 7

AD14_N
Circuit

B5
AD7_P AD7 Temperature
A5 7 9
Sensor
AD7_N
A4
AD15_P AD15
E3 8 10 LDR
AD15_N
D3
SPI DAC

The EDGE Board consist of Microchip MCP4921 SPI DAC to perform digital to analog
conversion. The output is available at the male connector J13.

SPI interface provides Serial clock, Data input and chip select to FPGA with DAC. Artix 7
FPGA act as master and MCP4921 act as slave device.

E5 SCK

DIN DAC J13

F4 MCP4921 3
OUT ADC/DAC
CS Connector
F5
Artix 7
VGA

The EDGE Board contains 12 bit VGA interface to generate VGA signals from FPGA and
display the output in the VGA monitor. The 12 bit VGA output the depth of 4096 colours in
the Monitor. Series resistors are used to construct DAC to implement VGA interface.

RED0
D15
RED1
F12
RED2 P1
F13
RED3 Connector
E16
GRN0
D16 RED
Artix 7

GRN1
F15
GRN2 GREEN
E15
GRN3 BLUE
H11
G12
BLU0
HS
BLU1
H12
BLU2 VS
H13 00
G14
BLU3

F14 HSYNC
H16 VSYNC
MicroSD Slot

The EDGE board provides a microSD slot (U3) for non-volatile external memory storage.

C7 SD_D2 1
U3
SD_D3 2
C6 Connector
SD_CMD 3
D5
3V3 4
SD_CLK
Artix 7 D6
GND
5
6
B4 SD_D0 7
A3 SD_D1
8
SD_CD
E6 9

Stereo Jack

Stereo Audio Jack with low pass filter is connected on the FPGA I/O lines on the EDGE Board.
Stereo Jack provides delta sigma audio output.

Audio L
G11 J1
Stereo
Audio R Jack Connector
G15

Artix 7
Buzzer

The Edge board contains piezo buzzer interface with FPGA through transistor. 5v Buzzer is
used provide alert tone. Buzzer’s resonant frequency is 3.8 kHz (where you can expect its
best performance).

Note: To enable Buzzer, place jumper at Enable and centre pin of J6. To disable power, place
jumper at Disable and centre pin of J12.

K12 Buzzer

Artix 7

HDMI / DVI

Both HDMI and DVI systems use the same TMDS signaling standard, directly supported by
Artix-7 user I/O infrastructure. Only Three differential data channels and one differential
clock channel are connected with Artix 7 FPGA. Also, HDMI sources are backward
compatible with DVI sinks.

TMDS Data2+ 1
B7
TMDS Data2-
A7 3

TMDS Data1+
B6 4
Artix 7

TMDS Data1- U4
B5 6
Mini HDMI out
TMDS Data0+
A5 7 Connector
TMDS Data0-
A4 9
TMDS Clock+
E3 10
TMDS Clock-
D3 12
Clock

The Edge board contains 50 MHz Oscillator to provide clock input to the FPGA. The input
clock can drive MMCMs or PLL to generate clocks of various frequencies and with known
phase relationships that may be needed throughout a design.

N11 Clock

Artix 7

TFT Display

The EDGE Board contains TFT display interface at the J10 connector. TFT display
communicates with FPGA through SPI protocol. SPI TFT is made of ST7732S SPI controller
with 160x128 Display.

3V3 1
GND 2
P9 CS 3
N9
RST 4
A0 5 J10
R11
SDA 6 Connector
R10
T13
SCK 7
3V3 8
Artix 7
SRAM

The EDGE Board includes 512 KB of Static Random-Access Memory (SRAM). This memory
has a standard, easy to use parallel interface with 19 address signals, 8 bi-directional data
signals, and 3 control signals. The part used is the ISSI IS61WV5128BLL-10. The interface is
fully documented in ISSI's datasheet for the part.
The onboard SRAM is very useful for microblaze designs that would like to provide the
processor with additional memory. To do this, the SRAM can be controlled with Xilinx
External Memory Controller IP core.

A0 D10
A1 C8
A2 C9
C16 D0
A3 A8
B16 D1
A4 A9
C11 D2
A5 B9
C12 D3 SRAM Bi-
A6 A10 D13 D4 Directional
A7 B10 Data Lines
C13 D5
A8 B11
SRAM E12 D6
Address A9 B12
E13 D7
Lines A10 A12
A11 D8
A12 D9
A13 A13
D14 WE SRAM
A14 A14
E11 OE Control
A15 C14
D11 CE Lines
A16 B14
A17 B15
A18 A15
Artix 7
20 Pin Expansion Connector / CMOS Camera Interface

Expansion connector J11 provides 16 I/O lines from Artix 7 FPGA to the external interface.

Note: To interface OV7670 CMOS Camera with EDGE Board. Leave pin1 and pin2 unconnected.
Connect pin3 of expansion connector to pin1 of CMOS Camera.

J11 Connector OV7670 Camera

5v 1 2 -- Connector
3v3 3 4 Gnd 3v3 1 2 Gnd

M16 5 6 N16 SIDC 3 4 SIDO

P15 7 8 P16 VSYNC 5 6 HREF

R15 9 10 R16 PCLK 7 8 XCLK

T14 11 12 T15 D7 9 10 D6

N13 13 14 P13 D5 11 12 D4

N14 15 16 P14 D3 13 14 D2

P10 17 18 P11 D1 15 16 D0

R12 19 20 T12 RESET 17 18 PWDN

Driver Installation
Vivado design Suite automatically install drivers for EDGE Artix 7 Board. To verify it, Connect
EDGE Artix 7 FPGA Kit to PC through USB cable and Turn On the kit.

Open device manager and check the following drivers are installed. One USB Serial Port
Driver and TWO USB Serial Converter Driver as Shown below. Then you can skip driver
installation procedure and start working with Configuring FPGA using Vivado.

If the drivers are not installed you could see the USB device under Other Devices Category as shown
below. Then you have to follow the driver installation steps given below.
Step1: Download and install virtual com port USB Driver for FTDI Chip.

http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Step2: Install driver by right click downloaded file and run as administrator

Step3: Connect Micro USB cable to FPGA kit U9 Port and another end to PC USB Port.

Step4: Open Device Manager. There are 2 other devices detected without drivers as shown
in figure.
Step5: Right Click on the first USB device and select update driver.

Now select Browse computer for driver software and select let me pick from the list of
device drivers from my computer as shown below.
Step6: Now Select USB Serial Bus Controllers and click next.

Step7: Select FTDI under manufacturer and select USB Serial converter A under model. (If
multiple driver with Serial converter A present select latest version)
Step8: Repeat step 5 to step 7 for second unknown device. On step 7 select USB Serial
Converter B instead A.
Step9: Now both USB Serial Convertor A and USB Serial Convertor B are detected under USB
Controllers. But there another driver needs to be installed for USB Serial Port.

Step10: To install USB Serial Port, Right click and select update drive. Now select Browse
computer for driver software and select let me pick from the list of device drivers from my
computer as shown below.

Step11: Select Ports option and click next.

Step12: Select FTDI under manufacturer and Select USB Serial Port under Model.

Step13: Now Drivers are installed and devices are detected under Ports and USB Controllers
section.
Programming EDGE Board Artix 7 FPGA using Vivado Design Suite

 Connect EDGE Artix 7 FPGA Kit to PC through USB cable and Turn On the kit.
 Open "Hardware Manager -> Open Target -> Auto Connect

 If the device is detected successfully, then select “Program Device” by right click on
the target device “xc7a35t_0” as shown below
 Browse the Bit file need to be downloaded to the Artix 7 FPGA and click Program.

 Once the Program Succeeds, Done LED D1 light up on EDGE Artix 7 FPGA kit.
Programming Quad SPI FLASH Memory using Vivado Design Suite

 Open "Bitstream Settings", check "-bin_file*" checkbox and click OK.

 Click on "Generate Bitstream" to generate your bit and bin file.

 Connect EDGE Artix 7 FPGA Kit to PC through USB cable and Turn On the kit.
 Open "Hardware Manager -> Open Target -> Auto Connect
 If the device is detected successfully, then select “Add Configuration Memory
Device” by right click on the target device “xc7a35t_0” as shown below.
 Select the micron memory device “n25q64-3.3v-spi-x1_x2_x4”, then click OK.

 Now Dialog box open and ask for configuration Memory. Click Ok.

 Browse the bin file to be programmed in the SPI FLASH Memory and click Program,
 Once the Program succeeds the following Dialog Box display the success message.
 To erase the PROM file, untick Program and verify option from Program
Configuration Memory Window and click OK as shown in figure.