The Arty Z7 is a ready-to-use development platform designed around the Zynq-7000 All Programmable System-on-Chip (AP SoC) from Xilinx. The Zynq-7000 architecture tightly integrates a dual-core, 650 MHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Xilinx 7-series Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) logic. This pairing grants the ability to surround a powerful processor with a unique set of software-defined peripherals and controllers, tailored by you for the target application.

The Vivado, Petalinux, and SDSoC toolsets each provide an approachable path between defining your custom peripheral set and bringing it's functionality up to a Linux OS or bare metal program running on the processor. For those looking for a more traditional digital logic design experience, it is also possible to ignore the ARM processors and program the Zynq's FPGA like you would any other Xilinx FPGA. Digilent provides a number of materials and resources for the Arty Z7 that will get you up and running with your tool of choice quickly.