Vivado setup

One-time setup on a Windows machine. Budget 2–3 hours, mostly downloading.

Install

1. Get Vivado ML Standard 2023.2 from the AMD download page, under "Vivado Archive". Free, no licence file. A free AMD account is required.
2. The project file is tied to the 2023.x series — a different major version will not open it cleanly.
3. In Customize → Devices, untick everything except Artix-7. That takes the install from ~100 GB to roughly 30 GB. The XEM7310-A75 is an Artix-7.
4. Leave Install Cable Drivers ticked.
5. Install to a short path with no spaces, e.g. C:\Xilinx.
6. Install Git for Windows if not present.

Open the project

File ▸ Open Project ▸ hdl\build\wireless_daq.xpr

If prompted to upgrade IP cores, click Upgrade / Report IP Status then Upgrade Selected. This is normal.

Known snag: missing mig.prj

The DDR3 controller IP points at a board-store copy of mig.prj in the home directory of whoever generated it (.Xilinx/Vivado/2023.1.1/xhub/board_store/…). If Vivado reports mig.prj not found:

1. In Sources, find xem7310_a75_mig, right-click ▸ Re-customize IP.
2. Point it at hdl\source\board\OpalKelly\XEM7310-A75\1.0\1.0\mig.prj (this repo ships it).
3. Click through with defaults and OK.

Prove the toolchain

Before changing anything, build the tree as-is and confirm you get a bitfile with non-negative WNS and WHS. If that fails, the environment is the problem, not the design.

vivado -mode batch -source hdl/build/build_bitfile.tcl -tclargs 12

Then continue to Building a bitfile.