uhd

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UHD - Firmware and FPGA Image Application Notes

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.. contents:: Table of Contents

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Images Overview

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Every USRP device must be loaded with special firmware and FPGA images.

The methods of loading images into the device varies among devices:

* **USRP1:** The host code will automatically load the firmware and FPGA at runtime.

* **USRP2:** The user must manually write the images onto the USRP2 SD card.

* **USRP-N Series:** The user must manually transfer the images over ethernet.

* **USRP-E Series:** The host code will automatically load the FPGA at runtime.

* **USRP-B Series:** The host code will automatically load the FPGA at runtime.

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Pre-built images

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Pre-built images are available for download.

See the UHD wiki for the download link.

The pre-built images come in two forms:

* bundled with UHD in a platform-specific installer

* stand-alone platform-independent archive files

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Platform installers

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The UNIX-based installers will install the images into /usr/share/uhd/images.

On windows, the images will be installed to <install-path>/share/uhd/images.

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Archive install

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When installing images from an archive, there are two options:

**Option 1:**

Unpack the archive into the UHD installation prefix.

The UHD will always search <install-path>/share/uhd/images for image files.

Where <install-path> was set by the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX at configure-time.

**Option 2:**

Unpack the archive anywhere and set the UHD_IMAGE_PATH environment variable.

The UHD_IMAGE_PATH may contain a list of directories to search for image files.

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Building images

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The UHD source repository comes with the source code necessary to build

both firmware and FPGA images for all supported devices.

The build commands for a particular image can be found in <uhd-repo-path>/images/Makefile.

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Xilinx FPGA builds

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Xilinx ISE 12.x and up is required to build the Xilinx FPGA images.

The build requires that you have a unix-like environment with make.

Make sure that xtclsh from the Xilinx ISE bin directory is in your $PATH.

See <uhd-repo-path>/fpga/usrp2/top/*

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ZPU firmware builds

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The ZPU GCC compiler is required to build the ZPU firmware images.

The build requires that you have a unix-like environment with cmake and make.

Make sure that zpu-elf-gcc is in your $PATH.

See <uhd-repo-path>/firmware/zpu

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Altera FPGA builds

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Quartus is required to build the Altera FPGA images.

Pre-built images can also be found in <uhd-repo-path>/fpga/usrp1/rbf

See <uhd-repo-path>/fpga/usrp1/toplevel/*

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FX2 firmware builds

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The sdcc compiler is required to build the FX2 firmware images.

The build requires that you have a unix-like environment with cmake and make.

See <uhd-repo-path>/firmware/fx2