Altium supports Cortex-M0 in new release of its TASKING VX-toolset for ARM Cortex-M Series

The new release is aimed at both ARM Powered® device developers and Altium Designer users.

It's based on Altium’s Viper C compiler technology and a new debugger, integrated in the popular Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Like Altium’s other Viper-based compilers, the new TASKING VX-toolset brings together optimized code, a very small footprint and very fast execution.

The new toolset builds on the success of the TASKING ARM compiler that is included in the STM32-PerformanceStick made by Hitex, regarded as the industry’s best enabler for developing code for a Cortex-M3 core at very low cost.

“This new TASKING VX-toolset recognizes the growing importance and benefits of the Eclipse environment to developers,” says Harm-Andre Verhoef, Product Manager for TASKING, Altium. “By integrating our debugger and compiler within the Eclipse IDE and creating a single development dashboard, we address the needs of many of our customers for a standardized design platform, and significantly shorten the learning time needed to be productive with the tools.”

Control over software reliability and maintainability is always important. Safer applications rely on both. This new TASKING VX-toolset is the first embedded ARM compiler with static code analysis against the CERT C secure coding standard. (CERT C is defined by the Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), founded by the US government.) Static code analysis can be applied early in the software development process, or on incomplete and incorrect code bases, to identify unsafe code without needing subsequent test-cases.

This new release supports source code debugging on hardware through a third-party JTAG link, specifically J-LINK from embedded software company Segger. The supported J-Link variants are the J-Link ARM, J-Link ARM Pro and J-Trace Cortex-M3.

The TASKING VX-toolset for ARM technology also features MISRA C code checking, profiling through code instrumentation and run-time error checking capabilities. Altium estimates that programmers can now develop extremely robust code in significantly less time than previously possible.

Highlights of Altium’s TASKING VX-toolset for ARM include:

• ISO C++ compiler, scalable to EC++

• C compiler, ISO C'99 compliant, with integrated CERT C and MISRA C 2004 enhanced code checking

• ARM Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS) compliant

• Assembler with macro-preprocessor, linker/locator

• Enhanced map file viewer, integrated in the Eclipse IDE

• C and C++ libraries, run-time libraries, floating-point libraries

• Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE) and debugger with two execution environments:

• Simulator

• On-Chip debugging over JTAG using Segger’s J-Link interfaces

• Royalty-free RTOS and TCP/IP stack