[meta-xilinx] [PATCH 05/20] Add basic Xilinx HDF support

[Jason Wu]

On 19/04/2016 9:00 PM, Philip Balister wrote:
> On 04/19/2016 05:48 AM, Nathan Rossi wrote:
>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2016 at 7:04 PM, Jason Wu <jason.wu.misc at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi Cyril,
>>> On 19/04/2016 3:13 AM, Cyril Chemparathy wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Jason,
>>>>
>>>> On 4/13/2016 2:23 AM, Jason Wu wrote:
>>>> [...]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> install -d ${D}${PLATFORM_INIT_DIR}
>>>>>> for fn in ${PLATFORM_INIT}; do
>>>>>> unzip -o ${S}/${HDF} ${fn} -d ${D}${PLATFORM_INIT_DIR}
>>>>>> done
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Unfortunately, the approach of peeling open the HDF file and consuming
>>>> its content is problematic.  The HDF file contents are fundamentally in
>>>> a tool dependent format, and these contents are meant to be accessed
>>>> indirectly through HSI interfaces.
>>>
>>> Well, I have no problem using HSI to extract the hdf, however, I believe
>>> Nathan does not want to have any xilinx tool dependency on the meta-xilinx.
>>> Thus, I think this is the best solution for us at this point. I am open to
>>> other suggestion on better way of handling without xilinx tool dependency.
>>
>> For a task this simple, I really don't see any benefits in using HSI,
>> since it is not as if there is any platform processing it is simply
>> extracting the pre-generated files. In fact I think there is a
>> potential for more problems with using the HSI tools (version
>> incompatibilities are the biggest issue) as opposed to simply
>> extracting the HDF file, at least for this case.
>>
>>>
>>> The other issue is if this patch is not accepted, the board support will be
>>> missing.
>>
>> With the changes discussed previously, I am happy to apply it. I doubt
>> there will be a better solution to this problem any time in the
>> relatively near future.
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Moving forward, we would like to implement a meta-xilinx-tools layer
>>>> with dependencies on Xilinx maintained tools (e.g. HSI) instead of
>>>> breaking open the HDF in this fashion.
>>
>> I have always been interested in having HSI available for use within
>> Yocto/OE/meta-xilinx. The biggest problem has always been that HSI is
>> tied to the Xilinx tools which is a really hefty dependency (and the
>> implied issues with licensing, EULA, support, platform compatibility,
>> version-ing, etc. that come with it) for what is a relatively simple
>> task (comparatively to generated bitstreams). Maybe this is something
>> Xilinx has a solution for? standalone distribution or open-source HSI?
>> definitely would make it considerably easier for project like Yocto/OE
>> and others to allow for tool automation.
>
> Adding a Xilinx tool dependency to the layer would also limit the Linux
> distros you could do builds on.
 From what I know, HSI can be very standalone and self contain. The main 
problem of using it is the compatibility issue between versions. HSI it 
self does not guarantee the backward compatibility.

Jason
>
> Philip
>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Nathan
>>
>>>
>>> I am fine with meta-xilin-tools layer. Any idea when this layer will be
>>> ready?
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Jason
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> -- Cyril.