Express Logic’s BenchX IDE Supports Lauterbach’s TRACE32 Debugger

Express Logic’s BenchX was introduced in 2008 and was awarded honors for “Best In Show” at the Embedded Systems Conference. In 2009, BenchX was awarded the “Embedded AWARD” at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany. Now, once again at Embedded World, BenchX takes a step forward by integrating Lauterbach’s TRACE32, one of the industry’s most highly respected debuggers. BenchX now brings together the Eclipse framework, GNU C/C++ compiler tool chain, and the Lauterbach TRACE32 debugger.

Lauterbach’s TRACE32 offers a set of modular microprocessor development tools, supporting all commonly used embedded processors. The modular hardware and software ranges from low-cost tools to sophisticated, high-end in-circuit emulators. With its high-speed design, TRACE32 is the fastest hardware-based debug tool on the market. TRACE32 can be used to debug the whole system, be it the boot phase, exception routines, or user applications, in almost any host and target environment. This first integration with BenchX currently targets available ARM processors.

“BenchX gives our TRACE32 an Eclipse environment, making TRACE32 even more appealing to embedded developers,” noted Rudi Dienstbeck, Third-Party Manager of Lauterbach, GmbH. “TRACE32 gives developers all the capabilities they need for today’s advanced, complex system debugging, and BenchX surrounds it with the supporting tools developers have come to expect from an Eclipse IDE.”

BenchX is an enhanced implementation of Eclipse, with many additions and optimizations that make development of embedded systems much more practical. BenchX incorporates a unified “BenchX Perspective” that combines the most commonly used windows from the standard Eclipse C/C++ and Debug perspectives. Other additions include RTOS awareness for Express Logic’s popular ThreadX RTOS, removal of buttons and menu options extraneous to the embedded environment, and addition of a progress bar showing status of interaction with the target.

“BenchX brings Eclipse to embedded developers at an affordable price point, but without sacrificing functionality. BenchX comes with virtually unlimited functionality in its integration with Eclipse-compatible tools such as Lauterbach’s TRACE32,” noted William Lamie, president of Express Logic. “We have many customers using TRACE32 with our ThreadX RTOS, and now they can use TRACE32 from within the BenchX Perspective for even greater ease-of-use.”