ztex For Linux

This SDK is especially designed for the ZTEX modules, but also works with other EZ-USB based hardware. The SDK consists in a Firmware Development Kit for EZ-USB devices and a Java API for the development of the host software.

The ztex package is Open Source and distributed under the GPLv3.

The package is known to work under Linux and Windows, but should work on every operating system which supports libusb and Java. The Java API allows the development of platform-independent host software.

The firmware of the EZ-USB device is developed using the Firmware Development Kit. It can be uploaded either by a utility which is a part of the SDK or by the host software itself using the Java API.

The host software usually consists of a single jar archive which contains

* all necessary Java bytecode;  * the libusb Java wrapper libraries for Linux (libusbJava.so) and Windows (libusbJava.dll), which are statically linked against libusb (no libusb installation required);  * the firmware for the EZ-USB device (unless not installed in EEPROM);  * Bitstream for the FPGA (if required).

This single jar archive runs on both, Linux and Windows (or other OS's that support libusb and Java).

On Linux this jar archive has no additional software requirements. The libusb(Java) library communicates directly with the EZ-USB device using kernel routines.

On Windows a libusb driver is required. (This driver is a part of the ZTEX SDK package). The libusb(Java) library communicates with the EZ-USB device using that driver.