The Java API of the ZTEX SDK.
This API implements access to all ZTEX FPGA Board specific functions from host side. It uses usb4java, a Java wrapper
for the libusb 1.0.
Features
The main features are:
- Platform independent host software. It is possible to pack all necessary files (JNI libraries, firmware, bitstream) into
one single jar archive which runs on all supported OS
- Firmware upload directly to the EZ-USB FX2 and FX3 Microcontrollers
- Firmware upload to non-volatile memory (EEPROM or Flash)
- Bitstream upload directly to the FPGA
- Bitstream upload to Flash memory
- Access to various kinds of non-volatile memory (EEPROM, SPI-Flash, SD-cards)
- Configuration memory (MAC-EEPROM) support
- Default Interface support
- Multiple communication interfaces: high speed, low speed, GPIO's, reset signal
- Compatibility allows board independent host software
- Licensed as Open Source under GPLv3
Communication with the FPGA Board
Firmware built using the ZTEX SDK supports an additional descriptor, the ZTEX descriptor 1. This descriptor
identifies the device and firmware, provides compatibility information (e.g. to avoid that a device is loaded with the wrong firmware)
and specifies the communication protocol. A description of the descriptor is given in {@link ztex.ZtexDevice1}.
The communication protocol defines how the functions provided by the firmware (see main features above)
can be accessed. Currently there is only one protocol implemented, the so called interface 1.
A description of the interface is given in {@link ztex.Ztex1v1}.
The most important classes for the interaction with the EZ-USB device / firmware are
{@link ztex.ZtexDevice1} |
Represents an EZ-USB device that supports ZTEX descriptor 1. These devices can be found using {@link ztex.ZtexScanBus1}. |
{@link ztex.Ztex1} |
Implementation of interface-independent part of the communication protocol, e.g. uploading the firmware to the EZ-USB and renumeration management. |
{@link ztex.Ztex1v1} |
Implementation of the Interface 1, i.e. the interface dependent part of the communication protocol. |
SDK overview
The following diagram gives an overview about the components of the ZTEX SDK.
The host software usually consists in a single jar archive which contains
- all necessary Java bytecode
- the libusb-1.0 JNI wrapper libraries for Linux/X86 (32 and 64 Bit), Linux/ARM (32 Bit), Windows/X86 (32 and 64 Bit) and OSX/X86 (32 and 64 Bit)
- the firmware for the EZ-USB device
- Bitstream for the FPGA
This single jar archive runs on all supported operating systems.
On Linux this jar archive has no additional software requirements. The usb4java/libusb-1.0 library communicates directly with the EZ-USB device using kernel routines.
On Windows a libusb-1.0 driver must be installed and assigned to the device, see the Tutorial on the Wiki.
The usb4java library communicates with the EZ-USB device using that driver.
Related Resources
Additional information can be found at