The JTAG specification introduced daisy chaining of MCUs in order to reduce the number of headers required to debug and program multiple MCUs. JTAG daisy chaining allows multiple MCU’s (and other JTAG compatible hardware, such as FPGAs) to share a single debug header. PEmicro currently supports daisy chaining of ARM-Cortex MCUs via our Cyclone programmers and Multilink debug probes. The same is true for most PEmicro software, including our Eclipse plugin GDB Server, and our Cyclone automation and control packages. Read more...

As members of the Embedded Tools Alliance, PEmicro and SOMNIUM share a focus on producing tools of the highest quality that are proven to work together and do exactly what's required, so that the customer can concentrate on their development work. SOMNIUM DRT products are 100% industry compatible, with unique benefits for developers working with ARM® Cortex® devices from Microchip, STMicroelectronics and NXP, with support for others (including Nordic Semiconductor) coming soon. Developers using DRT can reach the market faster, with higher performance, greater energy efficiency and more profitable designs. Read more...

PEMicro is pleased to announce the release of a new expansion plugin for PEmicro's Eclipse GDB Server. With this release, PEmicro has added extensive new device support for a wide variety of ARM device manufacturers. Support now includes devices from NXP, Atmel, Cypress, Infineon, Maxim, Nordic, Silicon Labs, STMicro, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba. For a complete listing of supported devices, see PEmicro's supported ARM devices page.. Read more...

PEmicro offers three USB Multilink debug probes, each with different features or device support. In this video, Edison Tam offers a brief overview of our Multilinks to help users decide which Multilink would be best suited to their project. Read more...

PEmicro has just released a new version of the Cyclone Image Creation Utility that allows the user to retrieve the configuration for a Stand Alone Programming (SAP) image directly from a previously saved image. Once the image configuration settings have been retrieved from an image file, the user can then regenerate the image, or modify the settings and generate a new file, or even use those settings with other .s19 files to generate a SAP image with different source but the same configuration. Read more...

NXP has launched the MCUXpresso Integrated Development Environment for LPC and Kinetis microcontrollers with PEmicro’s GDB Server fully integrated. This provides advanced debug capabilities via PEmicro’s Multilink, Cyclone, and embedded OpenSDA debug interfaces including: hardware breakpoints, watchpoints, real-time variables, semihosting, FreeRTOS awareness, the ability to attach to a running target, the ability to provide target power, remote debug, and more. Read more...

PEmicro's CYCLONE and CYCLONE FX programmers represent our effort to bring next-gen technology to the popular Cyclone platform. Some of the many improvements we were able to incorporate include better usability (via the 4.3" color touchscreen display), enhanced security, larger storage, and faster communications. The first of these new programmers launched in November 2015, and we now offer two models at each of the CYCLONE and CYCLONE FX levels - one that supports ARM devices plus many other NXP devices, and a more economical option that supports ARM devices only. Read more...

In addition to supporting the flash that resides in many different microcontrollers, PEmicro supports flash connected to an MCU via the SPI, I2C, and Address/Data bus interfaces. Depending on how the flash device is connected to the MCU, the programming algorithm may need to be set up to properly configure the external address, data, and bus control pins of the MCU. If you are not sure if you selected the right algorithm for your flash memory, please also read this blog post on selecting a flash algorithm. Read more...

PEmicro is exhibiting at EmbeddedWorld 2017 in Nuremberg, Germany (Hall 4, Booth 123). We have been developing some exciting technologies that can save time and money during both product development and product manufacturing and will be demonstrating these powerful new features for our GDB Server for ARM devices and our CYCLONE FX programmers. Read more...

There comes a time when an embedded application becomes complex enough that it requires an operating system. This may be because of a need for rich driver libraries, or a sophisticated task scheduling engine. In either case, a developer needs an equally sophisticated debugger to provide invaluable context information of their application. To that end, PEmicro introduced OS-aware debugging in its GDB Server for ARM devices. Initial support is available now for FreeRTOS, with further OS modules to be developed. PEmicro's GDB Server for ARM devices is available for download at no cost and works with PEmicro Multilink, Cyclone, and OpenSDA hardware interfaces. Read more...

Today a number of industry leading companies in the embedded tools industry announce a new milestone in embedded system development - the Embedded Tools Alliance (ETA). The embedded developers' toolbox is complex and involves many components: IDE (Integrated Development Environment), compilers, debuggers, trace tools, test tools, debug and flash programming hardware, target operating system, target middleware and training. Read more...

The ability to view variables and memory while a target ARM device is running has been added to PEmicro’s GDB Server Plug-in for ARM devices. This Eclipse plugin can be installed in any Eclipse-based IDE and supports the debug of ARM microcontrollers via PEmicro’s Multilink, Cyclone, and OpenSDA debug hardware. The “Real Time Expressions” view, which is part of the plugin, is similar to the normal expressions view, except that it works while the part is running.

Read more...