Debug support announced for µCLinux on Cortex-M3/M4

Many developers are seeing the Cortex-M3/4 as the right stepping stone from an 8/16-bit MCU and it is being used in more devices, especially those targeting wireless networking, motor control, automotive, power management and industrial automation. µCLinux has the advantages of Linux, being stable, reliable, flexible, and secure, and is also able to run on microcontrollers with no memory management unit (MMU). This is what makes it a viable and reliable OS for the Cortex-M3/4 microprocessors.

"As a complement to the OS-awareness debugging for Linux, our TRACE32 tools now fully support µCLinux on Cortex-M3/4 as well," said Barry Lock, UK Manager of Lauterbach. "The µCLinux awareness provides not only kernel, but also task (process/thread) debugging. The Trace32 tools will not only help developers develop more reliable software in the 32 bit domain, but will also enable them to enhance the performance of their software."

Energy profiling can be undertaken and correlated with the off-chip trace records to provide a direct correlation between tasks and energy consumption. Last but not the least, all of the advanced non-Linux debug features e.g. Semihosting (file transfer, virtual terminal), internal/external Flash programming, etc. are still supported and enable developers to exploit the comprehensive debug environment provided by the TRACE32 tools on Cortex-M3/4 running µCLinux.

"Software reliability is becoming an increasingly important commercial matter," said Barry Lock. "More than ever, developers need advanced debug tools in order to meet the demands of their job. The Trace32 support for uCLinux on the M3/M4 will be an important breakthrough for developers looking to develop mission critical or highly reliable software on this platform."