ARM Workbench IDE

The ARM^® Workbench IDE in RVDS is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) based on the open-source Eclipse 3.3 IDE. This combines Eclipse’s outstanding source code development tools and plug-in framework with ARM’s best-in-class compilation and debug technology. Developers can use the ARM Workbench IDE project manager to create, build, debug, program Flash, profile, trace and manage C/C++ projects for all ARM processor-based targets.

The IDE contains many features that significantly increase productivity, including a C/C++ source browser configuration wizards, cheat sheets, and project stationery. Project stationery enables a simple way to optimally configure the tools for specific ARM processors and development boards, and can be used for projects either self-hosted or hosted by an OS like ARM Linux. The ARM Workbench IDE offers the following custom component on top of the standard Eclipse IDE:

• Custom tabs to set options for the ARM Compiler, Linker and utilities, which provides an easy way to configure the ARM code generation tools
• Documentation viewer to give one convenient environment to display all the provided documents
• Integrated Flash programmer. This programmer provides a new flash project wizard to create flash algorithms, configuration panels for sending images and managing target connections. It also provides a flash device export wizard for close integration with the ARM RVD™ debugger.
• The ARM Assembler editor with syntax highlighting. This editor presents ARM assembler files with customizable formatting of code that is easy to read. It also provides an auto-complete feature on labels and other navigational aids.
• The online help for this plug-in describes how to configure and activate these settings.
• The integrated ARM Profiler, which is part of RVDS 4.1 Professional, is a unique product enabling non-intrusive  analysis of embedded software performance for virtually unlimited periods of time. It is capable of running at operational frequencies of up to 400 MHz and can gather profile information covering minutes, hours or days
• Linker memory map editor. This editor provides a graphical representation of the linker memory configuration. This enables developers to get a better understanding of how their tools are configured, in order to match this to their real system.
• Source Configuration Editor to enable the configuration of assembler files through a convenient GUI ELF and instruction statistics viewer enables a quick way to understand the different attributes of the executable or object file.

Getting Started with ARM Workbench IDE

Getting started with a new ARM project is made simple with the comprehensive set of new features in the ARM Workbench IDE. With the New Project Wizard, not only are ARM-specific project settings automatically configured for the user using project stationery, but selecting target configurations and target settings can also be configured within the wizard.

Common configuration options such as the choice of ARM-based processor enable developers to quickly select the most appropriate compiler settings for their system. The project settings can be further configured once the project has been created, providing flexibility within the development project. New user assistance features can be invaluable to users not yet familiar with the Eclipse IDE. This includes extensive tooltips for the configuration panels, and a comprehensive selection of step by step cheat sheets to guide the user through many common tasks.

Migration from CodeWarrior IDE

Software developers who have used CodeWarrior as their IDE will find easy-to-follow instructions for importing their projects from CodeWarrior IDE to Eclipse IDE. With support for large projects and the command line settings from existing CodeWarrior projects imported directly into the new project in Eclipse, users will experience an efficient transition to the new development environment.