Bootstrapping with AVED

This tutorial walks an administrator through the one-time JTAG step required to install AVED (the Alveo Versal Example Design) on an AMD Alveo V80 board. AVED provides the AMC firmware and the PCIe management function (PF0, device ID 0x50B4) that the SLASH stack binds to via the ami kernel driver.

When you need this tutorial

The rest of the SLASH platform-setup flow — including ami_tool cfgmem_program for writing the SLASH static shell — requires that ami is already bound to PF0. That, in turn, requires a valid AVED image in the V80’s OSPI flash. Follow this tutorial when:

• the V80 is brand new and has never had AVED programmed, or

• the V80’s OSPI flash has been corrupted or wiped and PF0 no longer enumerates over PCIe, or ami repports errors (such as NO_AMC`)

Boards that already enumerate PF0 (visible as 10ee:50b4 in lspci) can skip this tutorial and go directly to Platform Setup.

Prerequisites

Hardware:

• AMD Alveo V80 installed in a PCIe slot.

• USB cable from the host to the V80’s onboard USB-JTAG.

Software:

• AMD Vivado 2025.1.

Download the AVED Deployment Archive

AVED is published by AMD as a prebuilt deployment archive. Download the archive for the V80 from the AVED documentation portal:

• AVED documentation: https://xilinx.github.io/AVED/

• V80 member-portal page: https://www.xilinx.com/member/v80.html

Extract the archive on the host. The relevant files for this tutorial are located under flash_setup/:

File	Purpose
flash_setup/versal_change_boot_mode.tcl	XSDB script that switches the Versal device to JTAG boot mode.
flash_setup/v80_initialization.pdi	Initialization PDI loaded over JTAG before flashing OSPI.
flash_setup/fpt_setup_<vbnv>_<release>.pdi	Flash Partition Table setup PDI written to OSPI.

Switch the V80 to JTAG Boot Mode

By default the V80 boots from OSPI. To program a fresh board over JTAG, the Versal device must first be switched to JTAG boot mode. Source the Vivado settings, then launch xsdb and source the versal_change_boot_mode.tcl script shipped with the archive:

source <path-to-vivado>/settings64.sh
xsdb

At the xsdb% prompt:

connect
targets -set -filter {name =~ "Versal*"}
source flash_setup/versal_change_boot_mode.tcl

The script reconfigures the boot-mode register on the Versal device so that subsequent JTAG operations from Hardware Manager will be accepted.

See AVED JTAG Boot Recovery for the upstream reference.

Program OSPI Flash via Vivado Hardware Manager

With the V80 in JTAG boot mode, launch Vivado Hardware Manager and program the OSPI flash:

1. Launch Vivado and open Hardware Manager (Flow → Open Hardware Manager).

2. Open Target → Auto Connect. The V80 should appear as xcv80_1.

3. Right-click xcv80_1 → Add Configuration Memory Device.

4. Select the cfgmem-2048-ospi-x8-single part.`

5. Program the configuration memory using flash_setup/fpt_setup_<vbnv>_<release>.pdi together with flash_setup/v80_initialization.pdi. For the address range select Entire Configuration Memory Device.

6. Wait for Hardware Manager to report Flash Programming Completed Successfully.

For the upstream step-by-step reference, see AVED Updating FPT Image in Flash and AVED Device Programming.

Cold-Reboot the Host

A full power cycle is required after flashing — a soft reboot will not re-read the Versal boot-mode pins. Shut the host down completely, then power it back on:

sudo shutdown -h now

After the host powers back on, the V80 boots from OSPI and AVED becomes active.

Verify

Confirm that PF0 enumerates on the PCIe bus:

lspci -d 10ee:50b4

You should see one entry per V80 board. If the ami driver is already installed on this host, ami_tool will also report the card:

sudo ami_tool overview

The reported logic_uuid should match the UUID listed in the AVED archive’s version.json.

Note

If you are following the package build flow on a fresh board, you will not have the ami driver or ami_tool installed yet. That is expected at this stage — confirming that the board enumerates on PCIe via lspci is sufficient. Continue on to Platform Setup to install the SLASH stack, which brings in ami and ami_tool.

Next Steps

With AVED bootstrapped and PF0 visible, continue with the regular platform-setup flow:

• Platform Setup — install the SLASH stack and program the SLASH static shell over PCIe with ami_tool cfgmem_program.