Migrating an 11.x SDK project

The SDK tool flow changed in the 12.1 release. You are now required to create a hardware project that includes the Hardware Specification (.xml) file, the Bitstream (.bit) and BMM file exported from XPS. This allows you to manage multiple hardware projects in the workspace and also makes the SDK projects portable, removing absolute reference to the Hardware Specification file. If you have software projects created using a previous version of SDK, this is markedly different from using the Xilinx MicroProcessor Project (.xmp) file.

As a first step, you should rev up your 11.x hardware project using XPS 12.x and export the hardware specification file. For more information, refer to Exporting hardware specification in XPS.

If you do not want to modify your hardware project, you can continue to use the existing hardware specification file. Some library and driver versions that you used in previous board support package (BSP) projects may no longer be available in the 12.x release since the drivers and libraries shipped with SDK follow a versioning scheme, and older versions are removed from the installation. Therefore, you will see build failures when you import a BSP project. There are multiple ways to solve this problem that require your manual intervention, such as the following:

If you want to continue using the older driver and library version, you need the source code of these driver and library version from a previous SDK installation. Create a software repository, include these driver and library versions, and specify the path to this software repository in your new workspace. Refer to Setting up Software Repositories for more information.
Upgrade the driver and library version to the latest available version. Edit the Microprocessor Software Specification (*.mss) file located in your project directory and change the failing library and driver to the latest version. There might be changes in the interface functions for some of these driver and libraries, and you might have to modify your software application code accordingly. Refer to the Xilinx Device Drivers (xilinx_drivers.htm) and the OS and Libraries Document Collection (oslib_rm.pdf) in the doc/usenglish folder of your SDK installation area for the list of available driver and library versions, respectively, and the change logs.

To convert a software project from SDK version 11.x into your SDK 12.x workspace

Create a new workspace using SDK 12.x.
Select File > New > Xilinx Hardware Platform Specification and create a Hardware Project using the Hardware Specification file that XPS exported. If you launch SDK directly from XPS, the workspace is automatically created in a default location and SDK uses the Hardware Specification file that was exported by XPS.

If you have a local copy of your software repository, select Xilinx Tools > Repositories to specify the repository location.

Select File > Import. The Import wizard opens.
Select Existing Projects into Workspace and click Next.
Click to select either Select root directory or Select archive file (if your project was exported as an archive file) and click the associated Browse button to locate the directory or file containing the project files.
In the Projects box, select the project or projects to import.
Enable the Copy projects into workspace check box. It is required that you copy the old projects into workspace to overwrite existing eclipse metadata files with new ones.

Click Finish to start the import.

Xilinx embedded software
Sharing and archiving projects

Importing software projects
Exporting software projects