Datasheet

Figure 2a. The Santa Fe firmware flowchart for Nexys 3 platform.
The firmware accepts commands, writes status, and is capable of downloading blocks of sampled data to a
standard terminal program via a virtual COM port. The complete source code is provided to speed up customer
development. Code documentation can be found in the corresponding firmware platform files.
Detailed Description of Firmware for ZedBoard Platform
The Santa Fe firmware design supports the ZedBoard kit and targets a hardcore ARM
®
Cortex
®
-A9 processor
inside the Xilinx Zynq system-on-chip (SoC).
The firmware is a working example of how to interface to the hardware, collect samples, and save them to
memory. The simple process flow is shown in Figure 2b. The firmware is written in C using the Xilinx SDK tool,
which is based on the Eclipse open source standard. Custom Santa Fe-specific design functions were created
utilizing the ARM’s internal SPI peripheral instead of the standard AXI Xilinx XSpi core to increase the maximum
sampling rate to 90ksps. The SPI clock frequency is set to 3.57MHz.
Figure 2b. The Santa Fe firmware flowchart for ZedBoard platform.
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