Stable development for x86 designs

Datasound Laboratories reckons its new development environment makes the programming of x86-based embedded applications faster and more efficient, while also increasing software stability.

Datasound Laboratories reckons its new development environment makes the programming of x86-based embedded applications faster and more efficient, while also increasing software stability.

The joint hardware and software solution is based on the Digital-Logic MSM586SEV PC/104 board and the CAD-UL suite of tools for x86 protected mode.

The development kit gives programmers full control of the processor and its internal registers and allows them to monitor and debug software processes.

The kit is ideal for developing different applications in the telecommunication, datacommunication, automotive electronics and machine control areas, and also in medical applications where safety and stability are vital, such as in blood analysis and patient monitoring.

The development system hardware is based on the Microspace MSM586SEV PC/104 board which has an AMD 133MHz Elan SC520 microcontroller and many other functions including low power consumption, 4Mbyte of SDRAM that can be expanded to 128Mbyte, a watchdog, EEPROM and IrDA support and a 10/100Base-T Ethernet network connection for fast communication in LANs.

For graphics processing the assembly provides an SXGA 69000 controller, a PCI video databus, 2Mbyte of video RAM and a 24/36bit TFT LCD connection (3/5V).

The PC/104 board's interfaces include a keyboard and mouse interface and four serial RS232C ports.

There are also floppy disk and IDE hard disk connections.

The CAD-UL embedded software tools provide a complete development environment for programming embedded x86 applications including a highly efficient ANSI C/C++ compiler that is specially adapted for embedded use.

As well as a native debugger and a simulator debugger for host and module testing, the development environment also includes the XDB ROM monitor.

With its powerful GUI and underlying script language, XDB provides an almost infinite number of ways to debug an embedded application.

The ROM monitor is RTOS aware, and so is easy to adapt to real-time operating systems.

RTOS debugger solutions are available for Linux, RTLinux, NucleusPLUS, SuperTask!, Windows CE and RTXC.

XDB provides full ANSI-C/C++ support in the field of application debugging.

The ROM monitor is installed in the MSM586SEV board Flash as standard, which means no more waiting for the development system to start up.

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