Monitoring hardware project changes

If you are developing both the hardware (using XPS) and software at the same time, you might want to use SDK to monitor any change to the original hardware specification file that is exported from XPS. The hardware project in SDK maintains the link to the original hardware specification file and monitors the file for changes that affect software projects for that hardware. This would include changes such as:

Addition or removal of processors or peripherals
Changes to the processor memory map
Changes to the hardware component parameters

When a change is made to the original hardware specification file used by the hardware project, SDK opens the Warning! Hardware Specification File Change dialog box.

Click Yes to update your project. SDK does the following:

Updates the hardware project with the new hardware specification file, bitstream, and BMM file.
If a processor sub-system was removed from the hardware design, SDK closes the software projects, both board support package and referenced application projects, that are targeted to that processor.
Updates the board support package project with changes in the hardware processor sub-system. This includes removing drivers for removed peripherals and adding default drivers for new peripherals.
Re-builds all the software projects related to the hardware project.

If you do not want to update your SDK projects, click No. The source hardware specification file will no longer be monitored for changes. To re-enable monitoring, select Window > Preferences > Xilinx SDK > Hardware Specification and unselect the Do not monitor the original source locations of hardware specification file for changes check box.

If you want SDK to automatically update your SDK projects without warning you when the source hardware specification file changes, check the Do not show a warning or ask for confirmation on hardware specification file changes check box in the Preferences dialog box.

If the source hardware specification file was moved or removed from the original location or if the SDK projects were moved to another machine where the source hardware specification file is no longer accessible, SDK stops monitoring the source hardware specification file and removes the internal association of the SDK hardware project to the source hardware specification file.

To associate the source hardware specification file with a hardware project and restart monitoring of changes, right-click the hardware project and select Change Hardware Specification File. In the Change Hardware Platform Specification dialog box, specify the source hardware specification file.

Embedded hardware components
Hardware platform specification