The Arm FVP models can be universally obtained from Arm Tools Artifactory that also contains other useful development tools, such as Arm Compiler, GCC toolchain, CMSIS-Toolbox.

You can either download the FVPs directly or rely on the environment setup via the vcpkg configuration in the project. Additionally, a user-based license needs to be activated.

Note

Arm FVP integrations in GitHub Actions or desktop IDEs may provide their own built-in mechanisms for environment setup and vcpkg configuration support. Refer to corresponding documentation sections for details.

Arm FVPs are not available for macOS. Refer to FVPs-on-Mac for a workaround using a Docker container.

Direct download

You can download individual tool artifacts directly using the URL. The Arm FVPs can be found at https://artifacts.tools.arm.com/avh/ and are organized by release version and packaged for supported host operating systems such as Linux on Arm (AArch64), Windows on x86, and Linux on x86.

For example to download AVH FVP v11.30.29 for use on Linux with Arm-based CPUs, run the following commands:

wget https://artifacts.tools.arm.com/avh/11.30.29/avh-linux-aarch64_11.30_29_Linux64_armv8l.tgz

tar zxvf avh-linux-aarch64_11.30_29_Linux64_armv8l.tgz

In this example, the artifact is downloaded with wget and extracted. The models are then available locally in ./avh-linux-aarch64/bin/models/ directory.

Download with vcpkg

vcpkg is a package management utility that can be used to easily configure and recreate your development environment.

The learning path article Install tools on the command line using vcpkg provides detailed information on how to install vcpkg on your machine and use it to retrieve specific tool artifacts.

vcpkg is natively integrated into Keil Studio and is configured in many Arm references examples. It is also used in GitHub CI/CD workflows as explained in Arm GitHub Actions.

For Arm FVPs, the vcpkg_configuration.json file must contain an "arm:models/arm/avh-fvp" entry to ensure the download of the models. For example:

{
  "registries": [
    {
      "kind": "artifact",
      "location": "https://artifacts.tools.arm.com/vcpkg-registry"
      "name": "arm"
    }
  ],
  "requires": {
    "arm:models/arm/avh-fvp": "^11.30.29"
  }
}

License management

Arm FVPs, as well as other Arm Tools provided in the Arm Tools Artifactory, require an active Arm user-based license (UBL) for their operation.

Arm tools artifacts include the license management utility armlm that is used to activate and deactivate a UBL license in your environment.

For evaluation and non-commercial use you can activate an MDK-Community Edition that also enables Arm FVPs. Use the following command for that:

armlm activate -product KEMDK-COM0 -server https://mdk-preview.keil.arm.com

For commercial use, you need to obtain a license for MDK-Professional edition or Arm Success Kit.

Note Your use of an Arm tool is subject to your acceptance of the End User License Agreement for Arm Software Development Tools, located within the license_terms folder of the downloaded archive. By installing and using the Arm tool, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of the end user license agreement.