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Erol Simsek, Director Sales & Marketing of iSYSTEM AG said “In the first instance iSYSTEM supports the R8C/3x family. We then plan to expand support to more controllers, including 32-bit”.
iSYSTEM tools (please click for enlarged view)
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iSYSTEM tools for embedded software development include in-circuit and on-chip emulation hardware for more than 50 microcontroller families and their derivates, an easy to use development environment and open interfaces for flexible integration. The tools for Renesas R8C/3x consist of a software development environment with a debugger, winIDEA, and In-Circuit Emulator hardware. All popular compilers are supported. For R8C/3x the IAR and the Renesas specific compiler are available. Dependent on the customer’s application adaptors might be necessary.
The tool chain comes with standard debug functionalities such as run control, single step, memory visualisation and test functions like trace, profiler, code coverage for efficient error detection, plus 1-year maintenance. The package price (without compiler) is 8.180 Euro.
Development tools - yesterday and today
Today's development tools have to be more flexible than ever. Examples of that are In-Circuit Emulators (ICEs) and On-Chip Debuggers (OCDs). In the past microcontroller experts used ICEs/OCDs for low-level embedded systems software development only. Today, exactly the same tools can be found in different situations in the development cycle, such as an interface to the target hardware used to emulate, implement and test software. iSYSTEM offers flexible integration of development tools into the total development and test process by use of an API (Application Programming Interface).
Many customers use this interface for test automation; to remotely control technology by test tools. Besides being the interface to the target hardware an In-Circuit Emulator (ICE) and On-Chip Debugger (OCD) offers functions for software error detection and software testing. The run time analysis functions of the ICE include bus trace, execution profiler, data profiler, execution coverage and data access coverage. Prerequisite for above functions is the availability of trace information.
Trace information is the record of CPU bus activity (commands and data) and external signals including time stamps. With that information it can be proved on object code level if a program statement has been executed. iSYSTEM provides these functions for in-circuit emulators (e.g. R8C/3x), as well as for on-chip debuggers that support a code-trace port to reproduce or measure the code execution. Some devices offer debug cells that are implemented on the chip itself, like NEXUS (www.nexus5001.org) or ETM (Embedded Trace Macrocell from ARM www.arm.com/products/solutions/ETM.html).
