EECS 373
Design of Microprocessor-Based Systems
Ryan Heise, Matthew Linder,
David Reddmann
Special Topics: Software Toolchains
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Definition
• A set of software products where the output of
one product is used as the input for another
• Software Development Toolchain
– Text Editor
– Compiler/linker/assembler
– Debugger
Software Development Toolchains: Differentiation
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Cost
OS (i.e. Windows/Linux/OSX)
Supported Programming Languages
Supported Hardware Architectures (x86, ARM,
etc.)
Libraries
Real Time Operating Systems(RTOS)
Usability
Unique Features
Product Support
Third Party Toolchains
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IAR
Keil MDK
mikroC
Green Hills
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IAR
• Highly optimizing C and C++ compiler for ARM
and other platforms
• Supports the full range of ARM (7-11), and
CortexM(0-4), CortexR(4-7), and CortexA(5-9, 15)
• Support for over 3100 example projects for many
developer boards
• Supports ARM and Thumb ISAs and ARM EABI
• Complex debugging including power debugging
• Support for many different RTOS including
freescale, and openRTOS
• Includes run-time libraries as well as library
source code
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IAR Debugger
• Supports software simulation of code
• Supports in-circuit debugging probes
• Debugger is RTOS aware so debugging can be run
even in real-time run environment
• Support for in hardware debugging using JTAG
and many other in-situ debuggers
• Power debugging to visualize power consumption
in correlation with source code
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Keil MDK
• Specifically designed for microcontroller
applications
• MDK-Lite, MDK-Basic, MDK-Standard, and MDKProfessional
• Supports Cortex-M, Cortex-R4, ARM7, and ARM9
• Keil RTX: small footprint RTOS
• Complete Code Coverage
– Color coded debugging tool
• Professional supports:
– TCP/IP Networking Suite
– USB host/device interface
– Flash file system library
Code Coverage
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mikroC
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IDE and toolchain by MikroElectronica
Intended for Microcontroller-based applications
Supports only STMicroelectronics Cortex M3 and M4
Supports hardware debugging, software simulating and
function byte size measuring
• Has various tools like 7 segment display editor and textto-LCD character editor
• Includes drivers and libraries for many peripherals
including CAN, TFT, Ethernet, FAT16, USB, memory
management
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Green Hills Products
• RTOS: INTEGRITY
– FFS, FAT, NFS, and journaling file systems
– IPv4/IPv6 host and routing networking stacks
• Optimizing compilers for:
– C, C++, EC++, MISRA C, Ada
– Configurable to per-project, per-file, per-function, or
per-source-line
• IDE: MULTI
– C, C++, Ada
– Designed to work with Green Hills compilers and
debuggers
– Enforces strict clean code standards with MISRA 2004
and GHS Standard Mode
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Green Hills Products
• Debugger: TimeMachine
– One element of debugging suite
allows visual debugging of
program control flow.
– Performance analysis tools to see
where program is spending its
time
– Can view OS events to track
undesirable behavior in system
TimeMachine debugging element
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Pros and Cons
• IAR:
+ Support for all ARM processors
- Expensive
• MDK:
+ Extra support for microcontroller applications
- Only Professional edition offers all the perks
• mikroC:
+ Visual comments
- Only supports STMicroelectronics, Cortex M3 and Cortex M4
• Green Hills:
+ Visual debugging and performance analysis
- Buy multiple products
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Costs
Price per License
$7,000
$6,000
$6,000
$4,895
$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0
$249
$0
ARM GNU
IAR
KEIL MDK
mikroC
Green Hills
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Questions?
Comments?
Discussion?
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