Toshiba announces availability of free and low-cost development tools for ARM microcontroller families

TrueSTUDIO is based on the commonly used ECLIPSE™ IDE framework and is mainly intended for embedded systems developers using the C/C++ and assembler languages, True STUDIO also introduces UML for graphical modelling. A state-of-the-art C/C++ editor plus advanced assembler and makefile editors all offer colour-coded syntax and other features such as expand/collapse of code blocks to speed application development. In addition, a GNU C/C++ compiler and debugger allows engineers to start developing their software on a PC platform in advance of target availability.

Through TrueSTUDIO it is possible to build embedded systems based on Toshiba’s ARM9 products, such as the TMPA910CRBXBG, TMPA911CRXBG, TMPA912CMXBG, TMPA913CHXBG and TMPA900CRXBG - which offer varying levels of HMI-related functionality - and the new Toshiba Cortex M3 family members. Using the tools, developers can manage a large number of key development tasks including compiling and assembling source code and linking object files and runtime libraries.

TrueSTUDIO features an easy-to-use project wizard feature as well as an intuitive project explorer that can be used to manage the project and all of its properties. The wizard gathers target-specific information such as which EVB-board or Toshiba microcontroller derivative to use, and other basic settings. The development environment also contains a powerful debugger. It can debug software running on a target system using JTAG dongles or in a CPU simulator on the engineer’s PC. The debugger contains standard execution control features including ‘run’, ‘run-to-cursor’, ‘single-step’, ‘step-in’, and ‘step-out’.

Developers choosing the Atollic development tools also have access to functions designed to facilitate better team cooperation, work structure and development methodologies. A version control facility keeps track of each user’s source code, ensuring that previous versions of all files can be recreated later on; and changes can be traced. It keeps a record of what changes have been made, when these occurred, who made them and for what reason. It allows developers to check-in and check-out files, branch/merge them, browse the server repository, and view file histories.

TrueSTUDIO also offers a context-aware task management system that keeps track of bugs, to-do items and other issues. If work on a task is paused until some other time – which may be weeks later – TrueSTUDIO automatically reloads the task context (i.e. open files and their cursor positions) that was active the last time.