RAFT

Rapid Abstraction FPGA Toolbox (RAFT) is a Python toolbox which provides direct access to FPGA hardware peripherals. RAFT runs in petalinux and provides access to various C driver library APIs through python. It support access to the APIs directly from the board as well as from remote host. Command line access to Linux is also possible. This gives flexibility for user to develop applications directly in the board or at remote host. The python APIs can be accessed at remote host from tools like MATLAB, GNURadio, LabView etc which supports python.

Directory Structure

The software is divided into following directories:

xserver

contains cffi code which converts c driver APIs to python and pyro server code which runs in the board

xclient

contains pyro client that can communicate with the corresponding pyro server

examples

contains usage examples in different tools

c_lib

contains libraries which need to be added with petalinux build as recipes

docs

contains the necessary documenatation

Software Stack

The C driver APIs which are accessible as a Linux shared object are pythonized by RAFT xcffi. This can be accessed directly at the board or at a host over Pyro. At host the APIs can be accessed directly over Pyro or through a python client. The client provides debug logs and help in easier integration with tools like MATLAB.

Building petalinux with RAFT

Refer the steps in build_petalinux_with_raft.txt which is at docs directory

Steps to use RAFT at board and host

Refer the steps in raft_usage.txt which is at docs directory

Copyright (C) 2022 - 2023 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause