Virtual engineer tool aims to cut embedded development time

With the latest version of DAVE, the reusability of the software components, otherwise known as the DAVE APPs, is further enhanced for example thanks to the introduction of a device driver level, the XMC Lib.

The programming of high-performance and flexible MCUs for high real-time requirements such as those of the 32-bit XMC portfolio from Infineon generally calls for extensive hardware knowledge. Substantial time savings can be realised during software development, for example, if for the respective use cases, software components that have already been developed and tested can be reused.

XMC Lib and the DAVE APPs of the the latest DAVE release include reusable software components that provide users with abstracted APIs. The user can easily programme the XMC MCU and its peripherals supported via a GUI. At the same time, users do not have to concern themselves with the underlying hardware details. One key feature of DAVE and the DAVE APPs is the “resource solver” for the efficient and conflict free management of the available hardware resources.

The latest version of DAVE presents a complete development platform with Eclipse-based IDE, GNU compiler and debugger inclusive Flash Loader. It can be easily expanded with third-party tools. Compared with the previous version, a number of significant enhancements have been implemented, which for example improve the reusability and the usage with the extensive ARM ecosystem. The data models for the configuration and resource data have been improved and designed more robustly, which makes numerous functions run faster in the latest version. The graphic views have been designed more clearly, thereby allowing, for example, the manual pin assignment on the selected package to also be depicted graphically.

Beneath the DAVE APPs, a level has been introduced consisting of peripheral-specific, static device drivers (XMC Lib), which further enhances the readability, efficiency and stability of the code generated by the DAVE APPs. The freely definable instance handler further enhances the readability and reusability, as the user code is completely separated from the related peripheral instances.

To further improve and optimise reusability, the source code generated via XMC Lib or from the DAVE APPs was tested with the GNU, ARM, IAR and Tasking compilers. Based on this the created code can be easily imported to the popular compiler IDEs from Altium, ARM/Keil, Atollic, IAR Systems and Rowley.

The latest version of XMC Lib is available as a free download from the Infineon website. A beta version of DAVE, the DAVE APPs and DAVE SDK, which is the software development kit for DAVE APPs, is also available for free download and evaluation. The DAVE SDK provides users with a simple means for modifying existing DAVE APPs so as to further optimise these for the respective application. It is also possible to develop, separate DAVE APPs as reusable, configurable software components.

The DAVE productive version of the today announced Beta version is scheduled for July 2015.