News

iSYSTEM and Renesas engage in Technology Co-operation

iSYSTEM based in Schwabhausen and Renesas Technology Europe based in Ratingen have announced their cooperation to support the new Renesas microcontroller generation with iSYSTEM´s Emulation and Debug Technology.

iSYSTEM and Renesas have acted upon requests by the automotive industry to offer flexible tools that can be seamlessly integrated into the software development and test process.iSYSTEM tools for embedded software development include in-circuit and on-chip emulation hardware for more than 50 microcontroller families and their derivates, an easy to use development environment and open interfaces for flexible integration and application of iSYSTEM products in the development cycle.

Jürgen Axmacher, European Marketing Manager Automotive, about the new partnership: “With iSYSTEM tools we offer our customers a worldwide mainstream development and test tool. Although we offer our own tools, our customers also request iSYSTEM support because iSYSTEM tools are open, flexible and deployable in the whole development process. In addition there will be a know-how transfer between iSYSTEM and Renesas Japan on the requirements of diverse markets on modern debug interfaces of future processors. This also deals with definitions of the minimum must haves of a chip e.g. to full fill standards based on test requirements like code coverage”.

“With this co-operation iSYSTEM breaks new ground. Thanks to the professional support of Renesas, we have designed a tool that meets the requirements of diverse markets. In the first instance iSYSTEM supports the R8C/3x family. We then plan to expand support to more controllers, including 32-bit”, adds Erol Simsek Director Sales & Marketing of iSYSTEM AG.

The iSYSTEM tools for Renesas R8C/3x consist of a software development environment with a debugger, winIDEA, and In-Circuit Emulator hardware. All popular compilers are supported. For R8C/3x the IAR and the Renesas specific compiler are available. Dependent on the customer’s application adaptors might be necessary. The tool chain comes with standard debug functionalities such as run control, single step, memory visualisation and test functions like trace, profiler, code coverage for efficient error detection, plus 1-year maintenance. The package price (without compiler) is 8.180.- EUR

Background

Today's development tools have to be more flexible than ever. An example for that are In-Circuit Emulators (ICEs) and On-Chip Debuggers (OCDs). In the past microcontroller experts used ICEs/OCDs for low-level embedded systems software development only. Today, exactly the same tools can be found in different situations in the development cycle, such as an interface to the target hardware used to emulate, implement and test software.
iSYSTEM offers flexible integration of development tools into the total development and test process by use of an API (Application programming interface). Many customers use this interface for test automation; to remotely control iSYSTEM technology by test tools.
Besides being the interface to the target hardware an In-Circuit Emulator (ICE) and On-Chip Debugger (OCD) offers functions for software error detection and software testing. The run time analysis functions of the ICE include bus trace, execution profiler, data profiler, execution coverage and data access coverage.
Prerequisite for above functions is the availability of trace information. Trace information is the record of CPU bus activity (commands and data) and external signals including time stamps. With that information it can be proved on object code level if a program statement has been executed. iSYSTEM provides these functions for in-circuit emulators (e.g. R8C/3x) as well as for on-chip debuggers. But on-chip debug interfaces must support a code-trace port to reproduce or measure the code execution. Some devices offer debug cells that are implemented on the chip itself, like NEXUS (www.nexus5001.org) or ETM (Embedded Trace Macrocell from ARM www.arm.com/products/solutions/ETM.html).

iSYSTEM Product page

About iSYSTEM
iSYSTEM specialises in embedded development and test tools, supports customers with their embedded projects and provides professional services. Our vision is to easily enable developers and testers to use embedded development and test tools within the complete development process. iSYSTEM products are best suited for development and test of security-sensitive and vital functions for automotive, aerospace and medical applications. To achieve an optimal integration of development tools, iSYSTEM maintains close relationships with semiconductor, compiler, RTOS and test tool vendors. The majority of iSYSTEM products present a link between the embedded system and the host PC. Dependent on the CPU architecture an in-circuit emulator, an on-chip debugger, an on-chip debugger plus trace tool or an external bus analyzer can be used. The modular design allows the subsequent use of iSYSTEM products in other configurations. iSYSTEM tools support more than 42 different CPU architectures, 1200 microcontrollers and 150 compilers.

About Renesas Technology
Renesas Technology Corp. is a leading vendor of semiconductor system solutions for the mobile, automotive, industry and digital home electronics market. Renesas is world wide the number one of microcontroller suppliers and also delivers LCD driver ICs, smartcard microcontroller, RF ICs, HF power amplifiers, mixed signal ICs, system-on-chip units (SoC), system-in-package products (SiP) and other chips. Founded 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503) Renesas achieved in fiscal year 2007 (end of March 2008) a total turnover of 951 billons Yen. Renesas Technology headquarters are located in Tokyo and production plants, development and sales offices are distributed over 17 countries worldwide with a total of 26.800 employees. More information on www.renesas.com

Reflex Technology will exhibit at the Embedded Masterclass

Reflex Technology will be exhibiting at the Embedded Masterclass events in Bristol and Cambridge in May. Whether your an electronics engineer, an embedded computing engineer, a designer or a project manager, the Embedded Masterclass will give you the chance to meet with engineers from many of the world's leading vendors. The Embedded Masterclass is recognised for the quality of its presentations, which are technical in content and presented by engineers, for engineers.
Embedded Masterclass website

Serial debugging: New iCARDs for Cortex-M3, MC9S12P32, NEC78K0

iSYSTEM released three new serial debug interfaces (iCARDs) to support Cortex-M3 (including SWD trace), MC9S12P32 (New S12/S12X derivate without XGate) and NEC78K0 (not all NEC78K0 have a serial interface).
iSYSTEM Product page

Support for Freescale MPC56xx and ST SPC560xx

Both MPC56xx and SPC560xx are a result of a joint development between Freescale and ST Microelectronics. At the moment there is JTAG support only. A Nexus trace will be supported as soon as the appropriate controllers are available.
iSYSTEM Product page

iSYSTEM becomes AUTOSAR Associated Member

As an expert in emulation and debug technology for real-time embedded software development and test, iSYSTEM expands its activities in the automotive market.

"Since 1990 most of the automotive OEMs as well as Tier1 suppliers use iSYSTEM tool solutions to develop and test ECUs. AUTOSAR becomes more and more important in this market, so iSYSTEM as a tool manufacturer is committed to AUTOSAR. We are now figuring out how to implement AUTOSAR-compliant debug functionality in our products to support the AUTOSAR way of developing software for ECUs. Support for AUTOSAR OS will be standard in our tool software as we already provide it for standard OSEK. We are open to help defining standards for debugging and conformance testing as well", said Erol Simsek, Director Sales & Marketing of iSYSTEM.

The next step is to study carefully the standard to be able to define an iSYSTEM AUTOSAR related tool roadmap for debugging and test. As iSYSTEM is an expert for development technology on a microcontroller level, this will also include the support of semiconductor vendors to develop low-level drivers etc. iSYSTEM was already involved in some AUTOSAR related projects and is open to add value to the appropriate AUTOSAR working groups.
iSYSTEM Product page

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