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Online tools compile and download code for Cortex M3 MCUs

ARM and NXP have announced a collaboration that will provide designers with an online platform for rapid evaluation of embedded microcontroller-based projects. The first core that the “mbed” system supports is the Cortex M3 and, specifically, NXP’s LPC1768 microcontroller implementation. You can, according to the two companies, carry out fast and low-risk prototyping in the M3’s 32-bit environment. On the user’s bench, hardware requirements are minimal; the first mbed microcontroller hardware packages an LPC1768 and immediate peripheral components in a 40-pin, 0.1-in.-pitch DIP form-factor, for experimenting on solderless breadboard, stripboard and through-hole PCBs. You can order this board now from www.mbed.org. Once you connect your system that hosts the mbed hardware, you can go to this Web site to register, then download and run a Hello World! binary with the same command sequence as when you save to a USB flash drive—the mbed board has a USB interface. Compiling the first program that you write takes “only 60 seconds more”, according to the two companies; you launch the browser-based compiler, create a new template project, and click on “compile” to build and download the binary. The concept uses a cloud-computing approach to deliver the tools online in a browser—so there is nothing to configure or install—and the system can accommodate Windows, Mac and Linux clients. The system will be equally usable, its authors claim, for developers currently employing proprietary 8- or 16-bit microcontrollers or discrete logic; or even engineers for whom the techonology is a new venture.

Development with mbed tools aims to provide proof-of-concept designs: the mbed C/C++ libraries build on top of the ARM CMSIS (Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard) to provide high-level interfaces to microcontroller peripherals, which ARM and NXP intend to enable a clean, compact, API-driven approach to coding. The combination gives immediate connectivity to peripherals and modules for prototyping and iteration of microcontrollerbased system designs.

The narrative describing mbed on the new Web site is quite specifi c about the concept being for “first-look” project evaluation and low-level experimentation; “mbed,” it details, “is not a replacement for professional embedded development tools or evaluation boards. It is missing a lot of features those tools naturally come with, like a JTAG interface, a breakpoint debugger, integrated peripherals, or even a standard offl ine compiler. It does not attempt to replace these tools.”

ARM, www.arm.com.
NXP, www.nxp.com.