FPGA AI Suite Handbook

ID 863373
Date 11/21/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents

8. Generating the FPGA AI Suite IP for Integration into an FPGA Design

The FPGA AI Suite IP generation utility reads an input Architecture Description File (.arch) and places generated IP into an IP library that can be imported into Visual Designer Studio or Platform Designer, or used directly in a pure RTL design. The generated IP is configured based on the Architecture Description (.arch) File, which defines the following items:

  • Top RTL parameters are set to reflect values in the Architecture Description File
  • The Discovery ROM MIF is created to specify an architecture hash and FPGA AI Suite compiler version string

The generation utility also copies all the required RTL files into a single directory. As convenience options, the utility can also help to create .qsf files and wrappers for the PCIe design example or to compile an instance of the IP with a dummy BSP interface.

The IP generation utility generates either an unlicensed or a licensed copy of the IP:
Unlicensed IP
The unlicensed IP has a limit of 10000 inferences. After 10000 inferences, the unlicensed IP refuses to perform any additional inference and a bit in the CSR is set. For details about the CSR bit, refer to " DMA Descriptor Queue " in CSR Map and Descriptor Queue.
Licensed IP
The licensed IP has no inference limitation
The IP generation utility checks for an FPGA AI Suite IP license before generating the IP. The utility prints messages to stdout that show the license status.

You can use either licensed and unlicensed IP for bitstream generation so that you can fully test your design during the evaluation process.