Host Machine Checklist

Because the software runs operating system commands to configure the network card, you may require administrator privileges to complete the hardware setup. To continue the setup process, provide your user permission when the User Account Control window opens. You can also start MATLAB using Run as administrator. In Linux^® machines, provide the user administrator password when required.

This step also checks available Gigabit Ethernet connection, SD card reader, and writable SD card. Click Next to proceed.

Select Hardware Board

Choose your hardware from the list. The page displays your selected hardware. For more information on the supported hardware, see Supported EDA Tools and Hardware. Click Next.

Download Required Third-Party Tools

You can automatically or manually download and install third-party tools for your board.

When you select Automatic, the wizard downloads and installs the necessary third-party tools from the internet to your host computer, which must have internet connectivity. After installation completes, the third-party tools are available in the folder support_package_installation_folder/3P.instrset/. To get to the root folder of support packages, use the matlabshared.supportpkg.getSupportPackageRoot function.

For host computers without internet access, you can select Manual to manually download the third-party tools. The wizard provides step-by-step instructions for downloading the required third-party tools. Use another computer with internet access to download these tools and then transfer them on your host computer. After transferring the required third-party tools to the host computer, specify the folder path that contains third-party tools and click Next.

Install Intel SoC Embedded Design Suite

To deploy and run the Linux ARM^® applications on the Intel SoC hardware, download the Intel SoC FPGA Embedded Development Suite (EDS). Click Download link to download the Intel SoC FPGA Embedded Development Suite software. Select software version 17.0, which is the current supported version for this support package.

If you do not want to install EDS tool, you can skip this step and proceed Next.

After the software download completes, click Next. In the Validate Intel SoC FPGA EDS Tools step, provide the installation folder path of the Intel SoC FPGA Embedded Development Suite tool and click Next.

Configure Network Card on Host Computer

Select Drive Containing SD Card

In the next step, the Hardware Setup add-on writes a firmware image to the SD card. This firmware image is included with the support package. The image includes the embedded software and the FPGA programming file for using the hardware as an I/O peripheral.

This step selects the location of the SD drive that contains the card. Before downloading the firmware image to the card, unlock the SD card. Keep the card unlocked while the card is in the card reader of the target board.

Insert a 4 GB or larger SD memory card into the memory card reader on the host computer. The card must be formatted with the FAT32 format. Select the appropriate drive from the list. Click Next.

If your host computer does not have access to an SD card reader, you can still copy the firmware image to your SD card using a guest computer that has the HDL Coder Support Package for Intel FPGA and SoC Devices, along with the required third-party tools installed.

To copy the SD card image from the guest computer, locate the ../3P.instrset/alterasoclinuxbinaries.instrset folder on the guest computer. If you have downloaded the required third-party tool using automatic download mode, the folder is available in thesupport_package_installation_folder/3P.instrset/. In the alterasoclinuxbinaries.instrset, look for the SD card image (a zip folder) for the respective board, extract the contents of the zip folder, and then copy these contents to your SD card. To get to the root folder of support packages, use the matlabshared.supportpkg.getSupportPackageRoot function.

If your SD card already has an appropriate MathWorks Linux image to configure the hardware, you can skip this step by selecting Skip this step if your SD card is already configured with appropriate MathWorks Linux Image for Intel hardware check box. When you select this check box, the Hardware Setup add-on skips the Write Firmware step and proceeds to the Set Jumper and Switch Setting for Boards step.

Write Firmware to SD Card

To copy the programming file from the host computer to the SD card, click Write. Any existing data on the memory card is erased during this process. When the write is complete, click Next.

Set Jumper Switches for Hardware Board

Configure the jumpers switches on the selected hardware board so that you can use it as a peripheral device. The jumper settings are different for each board. This step guides you to use appropriate setting for development boards so that the board starts up from the SD card. When you set the jumper switch settings, make sure that the board is off.

For example, use these switch settings for the Arria^® 10 Development Board.

Connect the Hardware Board

Follow the instructions to connect the target hardware. Wait until the LEDs indicate the readiness of the hardware. Then, wait an additional 20 seconds for the board to boot its operating system and set up communication with the host machine. The LEDs display a green, steady light when the board is ready. If the LEDs do not light up after one minute, press the reset switch and restart the board. Click Next. The software verifies the hardware connection.

Verify Connection of Hardware Board

To verify the connection between the hardware board and your computer, click the Verify button and then click Next. After you verify the connection, you see a message that the hardware setup is complete.

You can skip this step if the connections to your board and development computer is already verified.

Launch Example

When the Hardware Setup completes, you can open the examples to get familiar with the product and its features. Click Open Example button to launch example in MATLAB which shows how to use Hardware Software Co-design workflow to deploy a bitstream into the hardware.