An automated CI/CD framework for Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC devices

CERN is working on the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade which will be installed in 2026. The CMS experiment and its Data Acquisition (DAQ) system will also be upgraded. The upgrade of the CMS DAQ system involves the installation of new electronics that will also host the Zynq UltraScale+ Multi-Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) from Xilinx. The Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC will run control and monitoring software on a Linux Operating System (OS). Building and testing software and firmware to boot hundreds of embedded system boards is quite demanding and can introduce possible failures due to its complexity. These failures can hold back the development and the operation of various projects using the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. This thesis presents the research, design, implementation, and testing of an automated CI/CD work ow on GitLab, that can build and deploy the software and firmware of the board, then boot it, and monitor its boot process. The automated CI/CD framework introduces eight pipelines that automate various parts of the design and test phase of a project for the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. The pipelines have been designed in a way that they can build the Vivado and the PetaLinux projects. They can build the CentOS 8 root filesystem and also deploy the boot images to the TFTP and NFS servers. The pipelines are also able to bootstrap the SD Card of the board and boot it through the Network. Finally, the pipelines monitor the boot process and interact with the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC. Further research areas have also been highlighted that can be implemented in a future project to improve the automated GitLab CI/CD framework. Such cases are the development of customized tests from the DAQ developers for the software and the firmware of the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC.