Development Environment Setup
Before we begin working with the ZYBO, we need to install the software tools used throughout this tutorial series.
The development environment will include:
Vivado Design Suite
Vitis Unified Software Platform
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2
Ubuntu
PetaLinux Tools
This page focuses only on installing the required tools. We will begin creating projects and using the development workflow in later sections.
Important: Use Version 2025.2
This tutorial series was developed and tested using the AMD 2025.2 toolchain.
Although newer versions of the tools may work, AMD periodically changes menus, user interfaces, project structures, commands, and development workflows. If you install a different release, the screens and steps shown throughout this series may not match what you see on your system.
To make the tutorial easier to follow, install the 2025.2 versions of Vivado, Vitis, and PetaLinux.
Using matching versions also helps prevent compatibility problems when hardware created in Vivado is later used by Vitis or PetaLinux.
Once you are comfortable with the complete development process, moving to a newer release will be much easier.
Vivado Design Suite
Official 2025.2 download page:
Vivado is AMD's primary FPGA design environment. It is used to configure the Zynq Processing System, create hardware in the Programmable Logic, connect IP blocks, assign FPGA pins, and generate the FPGA bitstream.
Vivado also exports the hardware description used by other tools in the Zynq development environment.
On the download page, locate the section labeled:
Unified Installer for FPGA & Adaptive SoC Tools — 2025.2
Download the Windows installer and confirm that the page and installer both identify the release as 2025.2 before continuing.
Do not download the newest release simply because it appears elsewhere on the AMD website. Following this series may be more difficult if your installed version does not match the version used in the tutorial.
Vitis Unified Software Platform
Official 2025.2 download page:
Vitis is AMD's software development environment for applications that run on the ARM processors inside the Zynq Processing System.
Depending on the project, Vitis can be used to develop bare-metal software, embedded applications, and Linux applications that interact with custom FPGA hardware.
Vivado and Vitis are available through the same AMD Unified Installer. You do not need to download a separate Vitis installer.
When running the installer, make sure that the required Vitis components are selected along with Vivado. The exact installation selections will be shown in the following steps.
As with Vivado, install Vitis 2025.2 so that the menus, project workflow, and exported hardware formats match the rest of the tutorial series.
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2
This section will cover enabling and installing WSL2.
Ubuntu
This section will cover installing Ubuntu within WSL2.
PetaLinux Tools
Official PetaLinux 2025.2 download page:
On the page, locate:
PetaLinux Tools — Installer — 2025.2
The installer filename should be:
petalinux-v2025.2-11160223-installer.run
You may be required to sign in with an AMD account before the download begins.
PetaLinux is AMD's embedded Linux development environment for Zynq devices. It is used to create and customize the bootloader, Linux kernel, device tree, root filesystem, and boot images that run on the ARM processors.
Unlike Vivado and Vitis, PetaLinux runs in a Linux environment. In this tutorial series, we will install it inside Ubuntu running through WSL2.
Make sure you download PetaLinux 2025.2. PetaLinux and Vivado should use matching release versions because the hardware platform exported by Vivado is later imported into the PetaLinux environment.
Using a different PetaLinux release may result in command differences, compatibility problems, or output that does not match the examples shown in this series.
Before Continuing
Before moving to the next section, confirm that you have downloaded or installed the following versions:
WSL2 and Ubuntu installation will be covered separately because they provide the Linux environment required to run PetaLinux.
Once all of the required tools are installed, we will be ready to continue with the ZYBO development environment.
