ASE Release Checklist

This document describes the ASE materials that need to be created before a product is released. This is organized first by product, then by category of material, then by relative priority of the thing to be created. Priority is only split between required (bold) and suggested (not bold).

Requirements for ASE to begin work on release materials primarily consist of a schematic and a specification sheet. I am not sure how well defined the list of things that will be on the specifications sheet is for non-FPGA products, but these two documents are the minimum at least for FPGAs. With Pmods, we can usually work from only a schematic, but more information may or may not be required, depending on the amount of custom work done on the hardware surrounding the Primary IC. Product Photos are required for ASE to complete work.

FPGA

  • Resource Center: Example.
    • Schematics
    • 3D CAD File
  • Hackster.io: how will we do this?
  • Reference Manual: Example
    • Product Introduction: to be shared with the Resource Center.
    • Feature List: to be (partially) shared with the Resource Center.
    • Documentation of the subsections required in an FPGA reference manual should be explained in another document.
  • Out-of-Box Demo: The demo that is programmed onto the board at time of manufacturing. To be distributed via the Resource Center. This has not always been provided for our boards, but distribution of sources for this should be a high priority based on customer feedback. This demo should demonstrate the use of the majority of major features on the board, including Ethernet connectivity, GPIO, video, etc.
  • At least one Microblaze/Zynq and one pure-HDL demo
  • Other demos: Listed according to priority. Including but not limited to the following:
    • Basic I/O: Typically will be the pure-HDL demo
    • Video (HDMI-In / HDMI-Out, etc.): First consideration for a Microblaze/Zynq demo, if hardware supports video.
    • XADC
    • Audio
  • Tutorial Content: Make sure that all tutorials linked from the Resource Center work as intended without creating more edge cases.
  • Board Files: Distributed via the vivado-boards repository linked through the Vivado installation tutorial flow. Separate board files must be created for different variants of a board. Board files should support the following IP:
    • Xilinx Memory Interface Generator: Microblaze-Only, to make configuration of the DDR3 interface easy. (mig.prj)
    • Zynq-7 Processing System: Zynq-Only, to make configuration of the Zynq easy. (preset.xml)
    • All pins and interfaces easily describable in the board.xml and part0pins.xml files. This includes the following:
      • System Clocks
      • Pmod Ports
      • Other GPIO Interfaces: such as leds, buttons, switches, etc.
      • Other interfaces may be added to this list as good solutions are found.
  • Hackster Product Entry
  • Petalinux Base System and BSP
  • SDSoC Platform
  • Vivado HLS Example Project

Microcontroller

  • Reference Manual: entries below are considered special when compared to the other sections.
    • Product Introduction: sometimes created by Marketing
    • Feature List: sometimes created by Marketing
    • Callout Table: requires top-down product photo to work from
  • Resource Center
    • Schematics
    • 3D CAD File
  • Demonstration Project / Library / Bootloader: Example
  • Digilent Core Support
  • Hackster Product Entry

Pmod

  • Resource Center
    • Schematics
    • 3D CAD File
    • Demonstration Projects
      • Pmod IP Core
      • Microcontroller Library/Demo
      • HDL module / FPGA demo: this is not currently standard, but occasionally comes up on the forums
  • Reference Manual
    • Product Introduction
    • Feature List
    • Quickstart Guide: this should be a step-by-step guide that walks through the configuration of the Pmod and the transmission or reception of the first packet of data to/from the Pmod, at the Protocol level (describe the set of I2C transactions, not the full bit-banged timing).
    • Additional Information: links to datasheets of important chips, schematics, demo projects, etc.
  • Hackster Product Entry