Accelerating software development for IoT applications

The ARC EM Software Development Platform includes an FPGA-based hardware board with commonly used peripherals and downloadable platform packages. The Development Platform is supported by Synopsys' MetaWare Development Tool Kit, which includes a compiler, debugger, and libraries optimised for maximum performance with minimal code size.

In addition, the embARC Open Software Platform gives developers online access to device drivers, examples, and a suite of free and open-source software that enables them to speed software development for their ARC-based embedded systems.

The ARC EM Software Development platform supports all ARC EM processor families and EM-based subsystems. To facilitate development of ARC processor-based designs, the platform includes several debug and trace interfaces as well as a range of on-board peripherals including motion sensors, flash memory, Bluetooth, and WiFi used in IoT edge devices.

The ARC EM Software Development Platform provides extensibility using Arduino UNO revision three compatible shields, Digilent Pmod modules, and mikroBUS add-on boards. For greater flexibility, a memory-mapped External Bus Interface (EBI) is also available to control any memory-mapped peripherals located on an external custom board over a generic pin header.

The ARC EM Software Development Platform is supported by a robust ecosystem of development tools and software, including the MetaWare Development Toolkit, which enables the development and debugging of highly optimised code.

In addition, Synopsys' embARC Open Software Platform gives software developers online access to a comprehensive suite of free and open-source software, such as device drivers, FreeRTOS, IoT middleware, and examples, that eases the development IoT, sensor, and voice applications. The software in the embARC Open Software Platform includes popular protocols used in IoT devices and networking stacks, such as lwip, and commonly used security protocols, such as mbedTLS. The latest version of the embARC Open Software Platform also supports the OpenThread protocol, an open-source implementation of the Thread networking protocol released by Nest Labs.

"Embedded software development consumes a significant portion of the design process, so having an integrated hardware and software platform helps teams speed their SoC development effort and meet crucial project schedules," said John Koeter, Vice President of Marketing for IP at Synopsys. "Synopsys' new ARC EM Software Development Platform provides software engineers with a flexible platform that integrates all the necessary hardware and software to accelerate the development of their ARC EM processor-based SoCs."

The DesignWare ARC EM Software Development Platform is available now from Trenz.