Hello everyone!

Our lab has bought the Xilinx ZCU1275 RFSoC and we, being Masters students are finding it extremely difficult to learn how to control the board. Since this board is very new and that only one reference design is available on the Internet, I am at my wits end in finding resources that can be helpful for us in learning how to control the board according to our purpose. Please let me know if there is any resource or paid training available for this RFSoC. Any sort of help is very much appreciated.

Thank you!

I have a ZCU111, take a look at PYNQ.io there are a number of overlays for the RFSoC and creating your own is not too difficult. 

Yes I have seen that. But nothing available for the ZCU1275 board. My professor is also considering to shift back to ZCU111. Actually to be honest, he thought implementing a wideband frequency hopped OFDM transceiver system on the ZCU1275 board might increase the chances of getting accepted in a top tier conference/journal. But the task to implement the entire system on ZCU1275 is too daunting for a mere Masters student with no prior experience with RFSoCs. Please let me know if you know any company or anyone who is experienced with either the ZCU1275/1285 boards. Thank you! 

https://xilinx-wiki.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/A/pages/189530203/Zynq+UltraScale+RFSoC

The best way to come up to speed on a complex SoC device like this is to start with an example project. Familiarize yourself with the device architecture and board, the example project design files, the tool chain and build process. Convince yourself that you can modify the design in some way, re-build it, load it and run it.

You will learn a lot about the device and tool chain just going through that process, and will be in a much better position to answer the questions that will inevitably arise as you go about creating a design that serves your intended purpose.

Thank you sir for the response! Actually there is only one example design available for this board, which is just a mere loopback test. Other than this, there is not much available on the Internet. More example designs are available for the ZCU111 board. My supervisor wants me to do my Masters thesis on this board by implementing a wideband frequency hopped OFDM transceiver system. I find this task too daunting. Meanwhile, I am building the system in a simulation level using Simulink. Please let me know if you know anyone or any company that could help provide a training for this board. Thank you!

You don't tell much about the application, protocols, frequency etc., but I can recommend TI's CC1310. The TI RTOS implements many protocols, and is fairly easy to use.

I use it for 868MHz application, but the family supports from 400 MHz range to 2,4 GHz.

To get the best help, please tell more about your needs.

br

Kaare

Actually our lab has already bought the ZCU1275 RFSoC. My supervisor wants me to implement a wideband frequency hopped OFDM system within a range up to 2.3 GHz. The problem now is that there is not much materials available out there in the Internet regarding this. Only a reference design is available. Nothing else.

I found this on Xilinx website:

Zync UltraScale+ RFSoC ZCU1275 Characterization Kit  P# CK-U1-ZCU1275-G

But it's $20k !! Yikes. Being a school you might get a better deal.

Being new and complex, your instructors threw you in the Very deep end... Good Hunting  <<<)))

Our lab actually bought it and now it is too advanced for a lab with Masters students to learn it. I don't know how am I supposed to finish my thesis if I have to learn this board from scratch.

Crumbs ! 

I feel your pain !

How long have you got for this - Xilinx have been busy trying to get people to believe that you just click a few bits of pre-baked code together and off goes a fully working design using GHz IO, RF and a few hundred K logic cells.

The real world is different - I'd reckon on a man year or two from someone experienced to get it do anything much  - and to really exploit its potential, 10s of man years. Not a masters thesis project but a serious multi million dollar + engineering job.

Try and get your school to re-think this.

MK