.. index:: ssh
.. index:: Ubuntu
.. index:: CentOS
:numref:`Fig_AWS_Overview` shows an overview of how one uses AWS.
Overview of AWS usage
From a local computer you use a web browser to visit the aws.amazon.com web page, where you create accounts, see account status, set up authentication credentials, |ETC| You also create one or more "instances", which are virtual machines in the cloud. Instances typically run standard, well-known operating systems. In this document we will only discuss the Ubuntu and CentOS operating systems (both are variants of Linux).
Once your AWS account and instance are set up, you connect to the
instance in the usual way that you would connect to any remote
machine, |IE| using ssh from a terminal window, connecting you to
a bash shell in Linux on your instance (see
:numref:`Sec_connecting_to_an_instance`).
Connecting to an AWS instance requires cryptographic key-based authentication (AWS does not support password-based authentication), indicated by the foo.pem key file on your local machine in :numref:`Fig_AWS_Overview`.
Once you have connected to your instance, you can use the operating system in the usual way:
- Create and edit files
- Copy files to/from remote locations using
scp - Clone remote git repositories
- |ETC|
You can also:
- Prepare a Verilog RTL design for the FPGA, and run it through the AWS synthesis flow (which uses Xilinx Vivado in batch mode, |IE| not the Vivado GUI). The result is an AFI (AWS FPGA Image) representing the conventional FPGA bitfile.
- Load an AFI into the FPGA attached to your instance, at which point your design is "live" on the FPGA.
- Run software under Linux on your instance ("host-side") to interact with your design on the FPGA.