Release v1.4.8

• FPGA developer kit supports Xilinx SDx/Vivado 2018.3

  • We recommend developers upgrade to v1.4.8 to benefit from the new features, bug fixes, and optimizations. To upgrade, use Developer AMI v1.6.0 on AWS Marketplace. The Developer Kit scripts (hdk_setup.sh or sdaccel_setup.sh) will detect the tool version and update the environment based on requirements needed for Xilinx 2018.3 tools.

• Ease of Use features:

  • Support for importing results into SDx GUI - By importing results from a script-based flow into SDx IDE, developers can leverage the tools for debug/profiling while keeping flexibility of the script-based flow
  • Vivado HLS developers can now import designs into SDAccel environment to leverage emulation, debug and run-time software

• New functionality:

  • The following HLS Video Processing cores are now license free and come installed with Vivado (VPSS, Video Mixer, Video TPG, Frame Buffer WR/RD, Gamma LUT, Demosaic, VTC)
  • Improved XCLBIN utilities designed for automating the management of accelerator designs
  • Incremental compile reduces build times
  • Python bindings for AWS FPGA MGMT Tools

• Fixed Issues

  • Fixes printf in main of fpga_local_cmd
  • Fixes SV dma read function to work with unprintable chars
  • Fixes Segmentation Fault in cl_sde simulation test
  • Fixes test issues in cl_dram_dma example when using the AXI memory model for faster simulations

• Deprecated Features

  • As announced in HDK 1.4.6 all EDMA driver code has been removed and deprecated from the developer kit.
    • AWS recommends using the XDMA driver for your applications.

• Package versions used for validation

Package	AMI 1.6.0 [2018.3]	AMI 1.5.0 [2018.2]	AMI 1.4.0 [2017.4]
OS	Centos 7.6	Centos 7.5, 7.6	Centos 7.4
kernel	3.10.0-957.5.1.el7.x86_64	3.10.0-862.11.6.el7.x86_64, 3.10.0-957.1.3.el7.x86_64	3.10.0-693.21.1.el7.x86_64
kernel-devel	3.10.0-957.5.1.el7.x86_64	3.10.0-862.11.6.el7.x86_64, 3.10.0-957.1.3.el7.x86_64	3.10.0-693.21.1.el7.x86_64
LIBSTDC++	libstdc++-4.8.5-36.el7.x86_64	libstdc++-4.8.5-36.el7.x86_64	libstdc++-4.8.5-16.el7_4.2.x86_64

Release v1.4.7

• Adds Xilinx Runtime (XRT) Support for Linux kernel 3.10.0-957.1.3.el7.x86_64 & Centos 7.6

Release v1.4.6

• Fixes SDx 2018.2 missing profile report items in SDAccel

  • Requires Xilinx 2018.2 Patch AR71715
  • Requires Xilinx runtime release 2018.2_XDF.RC4
  • Please see patching & XRT installation instructions here

• Fixes SDx 2018.2 multithreaded kernel driver scheduling

  • Requires Xilinx runtime release 2018.2_XDF.RC4
  • Please see XRT installation instructions here

• EDMA Driver is no longer supported.

  • AWS strongly recommends moving your applications to XDMA.
  • EDMA Driver will be fully removed from Developer kit 1.4.7+.

• Fixed Issues

  • NULL definition include in header file
  • Improved messaging for AFI builder script
  • Fixes address decoding to DDR slaves in cl_dram_dma example

• Improvements

  • Improves SDK FPGA management tools error messaging
  • Enhanced DMA lib for general device number mapping
  • Improved guidelines for AFI power management
  • Improved Streaming Data Engine IP Integration Documentation

• Package versions used to validate SDAccel runtime

  Package	AMI 1.5.0 [SDx 2018.2]	AMI 1.4.0 [SDx 2017.4]
  kernel	3.10.0-862.11.6.el7.x86_64	3.10.0-693.21.1.el7.x86_64
  kernel-devel	3.10.0-862.11.6.el7.x86_64	3.10.0-693.21.1.el7.x86_64
  LIBSTDC++	libstdc++-4.8.5-36.el7.x86_64	libstdc++-4.8.5-16.el7_4.2.x86_64

Release v1.4.5

Release 1.4.5 (See ERRATA for unsupported features)

• Documents SDAccel Runtime compatibility
• Enables SDK FPGA Mgmt tool access to Non-root users
• Fixed issues
  • HLX simulation failure
  • Shell BFM read from C host memory
  • cl_dram_dma example design DDR read issue

Release 1.4.4

Release 1.4.4 (See ERRATA for unsupported features)

• Fixed compile issues in Simulation while using 3rd party simulators (synopsys VCS, Cadence IES and Mentor Questasim).

Release 1.4.3

Release 1.4.3 (See ERRATA for unsupported features)

• DRAM Data Retention - With DRAM data retention, developers can simply load a new AFI and continue using the data that is persistently kept in the DRAM attached to the FPGA, eliminating unnecessary data movements and greatly improving the overall application performance.
• Virtual Ethernet - Provides a low latency network interface for EC2 F1, that enables high performance hardware acceleration to ethernet based applications on AWS like firewalls, routers and advanced security virtual appliances. With Virtual Ethernet, developers are able to create F1 accelerators that process ethernet packets directly from user-space on the FPGA with high throughput and low-latency.
• Developer AMI v1.5 with Vivado/SDx 2018.2 tools - New FPGA developer AMI supporting Vivado 2018.2 for faster compile times, higher frequencies and improved timing closure

Release 1.4.2

• Fixed SDAccel XOCL driver compile fails that occur on linux kernels greater than 3.10.0-862.3.3.el7.x86_64

Release 1.4.1

Release 1.4.1 (See ERRATA for unsupported features)

• Simulation performance Improvements
  • DDR Behavioural Model - Hardware simulations use an AXI memory model to run 4X faster by skipping DDR initialization. Please refer to this README on how to use this feature in your simulation.
  • DDR Backdoor Loading - Hardware simulation time is reduced by pre-loading data directly into memory models. Please refer to this README for example tests that demonstrate this feature.
• Fixed Issues
  • XOCL Driver update to address synchronization issues.
  • Fixed XOCL driver issues when using ubuntu distribution for Linux OS.
  • Improved Performance for cl_dram_dma Public AFI.
  • SDAccel 3rd party examples updated to use Shell V1.4 DSA.
  • Fixed AFI Manifest generation in IPI flow.
  • HLX button fixed in IPI
  • FPGA Library update

Release 1.4.0

Release 1.4.0 (See ERRATA for unsupported features)

• New Shell Stable: v04261818. Starting with release v1.4.0, the AWS FPGA shell stable has been updated and only supports Xilinx 2017.4 SDx/Vivado. All previous versions of tools and shells are not supported with this developer kit shell release.

  • Shell Release Notes

• The previous shell (v071417d3) will be supported until 09/01/2018. Developers are required to use the developer kit v1.3.X branch for all shell version v071417d3 development.

• Release 1.4.0 greatly improves the performance of the DMA (for interrupt driven DMA on the cl_dram_dma example design). This is accomplished through a combination of shell changes to relax DMA timeouts and a new XDMA software driver option. We have ported the relevant HDK examples to the XDMA driver in this release. EDMA is still supported, and developers can freely choose which DMA driver to use as part of their host application.

Release 1.3.8

Release 1.3.8 (See ERRATA for unsupported features)

• Fixed SDAccel XOCL driver compile fails that occur on linux kernels greater than 3.10.0-693.21.1.el7.x86_64