27 February 2009

Faster ARM Cortex-M3 Debug With IAR Embedded Workbench

IAR Systems, a member of the ARM Connected Community, has   rolled out Version 5.30 of IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM technology, its integrated development environment (IDE) for building and debugging embedded applications.

The latest version introduces new debug capabilities for ARM Cortex-M3 processors that were previously only available in dedicated devices and costly debug probes, IAR Systems said. In addition, Version 5.30 supports source code compliance checking to the MISRA-C:2004 standard, for high integrity applications such as automotive as well as support for the ARM Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS).

“The IAR Embedded Workbench has made a significant contribution to the success of the Cortex-M3 processor and now the debugger supports the features of the CoreSight technology,” said Reinhard Keil, Director of MCU Tools, ARM. “IAR Systems’ support for the CMSIS initiative is important for its success and I am excited to see that CMSIS layer is included in the new release. This is a major step towards standardization in the software industry since it enables sharing of software components.”

Display and analysis of Cortex-M3 processor SWV/SWO data is greatly simplified. A new Data Log window logs accesses to up to four different memory locations or areas, and includes time information. In addition, an Interrupt Log window now logs entrances and exits to and from interrupts, including time information. A time scale for each interrupt source is displayed in a Graph window.

The compiler optimizer has been tuned to generate industry-leading code size for Cortex-M3 code. The linker can also now compress initialized data to minimize demands on Flash memory: the compressed data will be automatically uncompressed when moved from Flash to RAM by the startup code.

Over 1400 example projects are now included in the product installation. These cover evaluation boards from Actel, Analog Devices, Aiji Systems, Atmel, Cirrus Logic, Freescale, LogicPD, Luminary, Micronas, Nohau, OKI, Olimex, Pasat, NXP, Phytec, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and IAR Systems.