Who is this for?
This advanced topic is for firmware developers, system architects, and silicon validation engineers working on Arm Neoverse CSS platforms who require a pre-silicon workflow for the CSS-V3 reference design using Fixed Virtual Platforms (FVPs).
What will you learn?
Upon completion of this Learning Path, you will be able to:
- Explain the CSS-V3 architecture and the RD-V3 firmware boot sequence (TF-A, RSE, SCP/MCP/LCP, UEFI/GRUB, Linux)
- Set up a containerized build environment and sync sources with a pinned manifest using repo
- Build and boot the RD-V3 firmware stack on FVP and map UART consoles to components
- Interpret boot logs to verify bring-up and diagnose boot-stage issues
- Modify platform control firmware (for example, SCP/MCP) and validate changes via pre-silicon simulation
- Launch a dual-chip RD-V3-R1 simulation and verify AP/MCP coordination
Prerequisites
Before starting, you will need the following:
- Access to an Arm Neoverse-based Linux machine (cloud or local) with at least 80 GB of free storage
- Familiarity with Linux command-line tools and basic scripting
- Understanding of firmware boot stages and SoC-level architecture
- Docker installed, or a GitHub Codespaces-compatible development environment