Tools bring ARM designs up to speed

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Nov 4, 2003

Embedded developers can enjoy productivity gains and reduced time to market with the newest integrated CodeWarrior Development Studio, ARM ISA Edition Version 2.

Embedded developers can enjoy productivity gains and reduced time to market with the newest integrated CodeWarrior Development Studio, ARM ISA Edition Version 2.

The studio simplifies low-level development and board bring-up tasks for processors based on ARM cores that power a variety of end devices including mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), MP3 players, networking routers and set-top boxes.

It includes a powerful Metrowerks compiler for ARM architectures, together with debugging, profiling, optimisation and virtual prototyping tools, all integrated into the newest version of the CodeWarrior integrated development environment (IDE).

CodeWarrior Development Studio, ARM ISA Edition Version 2 integrates Virtio's Virtual Platform - an instruction set simulator that allows for virtual prototyping including simulation of peripherals specified by silicon hardware reference designs.

The virtual platform technology helps engineers begin development and debugging processes in parallel with hardware design.

The Metrowerks offering also includes kernel-aware support for the RTXC Quadros RTOS from Quadros Systems.

The studio supports numerous ARM core target platforms, extending the user's visibility and debugging capabilities into the target hardware with direct, out-of-the-box support for Motorola's i.MX processor family, Texas Instruments' OMAP application processors, Intel XScale technology and other platforms based on ARM cores.

The Metrowerks product also includes the Metrowerks Target Resident Kernel (MetroTRK), a nonintrusive software debugging monitor that allows developers to run applications on the target hardware during the debugging process, resulting in fast identification and correction of software bugs.

"We have been using an early access version of the Metrowerks development tool suite and have experienced significant improvements in our development process.

The CodeWarrior IDE is extremely fast and responsive.

The integrated tool suite will allow our customers to develop i.MX-based products faster than ever", said Omid Tahernia, Vice President of Strategy and Business and Development for Motorola's Wireless and Mobile Group.

"The profiling tool in the CodeWarrior tool suite will enable developers on Texas Instruments' leading OMAP platform to find the bottlenecks in their code and develop optimisations that result in maximum software performance and fault-free software.

We are proud to see Metrowerks advancing the state of embedded development with innovations like these", said Paul Werp, Worldwide Director of Marketing for TI's OMAP platform.

CodeWarrior Development Studio, ARM ISA Edition Version 2 is available direct from Metrowerks and has a suggested retail price of Eur 6040, which includes one Virtio softboard and one year of technical support and maintenance.