TASKING VX-toolset for ARM Cortex v4.0r1
Release Note

Scope

These release notes cover the changes between v3.2r1 and v4.0r1 of the TASKING VX-toolset for ARM Cortex.

Contents

New in v4.0

This section gives an overview of the most important new features and improvements in v4.0. See the sections with fixed issues for a complete list.

Various Significant Eclipse Changes

In v4.0r1 a major overhaul in various Eclipse parts has been made to improve ease of use. A summary of the changes:

The XML schema for the debug target configuration files (.dtc) has been modified to accommodate some of the changes mentioned. In case you have created a .dtc file for your own board it shall be updated accordingly.

Device Support

With v4.0r1 support for the following devices and boards have been added.

Energy Micro's Gecko 200 series and 800 series

This includes EFM32G200F16, EFM32G200F32, EFM32G200F64, EFM32G210F128, EFM32G230F128, EFM32G230F32, EFM32G230F64, EFM32G280F128, EFM32G280F32, EFM32G280F64, EFM32G290F128, EFM32G290F32, EFM32G290F64, EFM32G840F128, EFM32G840F32, EFM32G840F64, EFM32G880F128, EFM32G880F32, EFM32G880F64, EFM32G890F128, EFM32G890F32, EFM32G890F64.
Currently there is no evaluation board supported.

Cortex-R4 support

This release implements Cortex-R4 support. The compiler option -CARMv7R is available to enable code generation for the Cortex-R4. A generic Cortex-R4 device and TI TMS570 have been added to the Processor properties page in Eclipse.

The following TI TMS570LS Cortex-R4 devices are added: TMS570LS10106, TMS570LS10116, TMS570LS10206, TMS570LS10216, TMS570LS20206, TMS570LS20216. Currently there is no evaluation board supported.

The support for Cortex-R is enabled through a dedicated license key.

STMicroelectronics STM32F4xx

The following devices are now supported: STM32F405RG, STM32F405VG, STM32F405ZG, STM32F407IE, STM32F407IG, STM32F407VE, STM32F407VG, STM32F407ZE, STM32F407ZG, STM32F415RG, STM32F415VG, STM32F415ZG, STM32F417IE, STM32F417IG, STM32F417VE, STM32F417VG, STM32F417ZE, STM32F417ZG.

Hardware debugging is supported on the STM3220G evaluation board where the STM32F2xx device is replaced with a STM32F4xx device. This is only feasible on boards with a socket mounted device. Support is also added for the STMicroelectronics STM32F4 Manta Discovery Kit.

C++ compiler updated to EDG 4.2

The EDG front-end in the C++ compiler has been updated from v3.8 to v4.2. STLPort libraries and user guide are updated accordingly

Major changes include:

C libraries included for FPU variants

All C libraries are now also available in variants for FPUs. This is required for Cortex-M4 and Cortex-R4 devices. The control program, ccarm, selects the libraries depending on the --fpu and -C/--cpu options.

CMSIS 2.00 support

With v4.0r1 support has been implemented for CMSIS 2.00. The compiler has been extended with the CMSIS DSP intrinsics and the CMSIS DSP library has been added to the cmsis directory in the product installation. Also the CMSIS header files in that directory have been updated.

Debugger support for ST-Link/V2

Support for the ST-Link/V2 debug probe has been added to the debugger and the applicable debug target configurations.

For ST-Link and ST-Link/V2, either as on-board or as separate debug probe, it is required to install drivers from STMicroelectronics. The latest version of the drivers can be downloaded from: http://www.st.com/internet/com/SOFTWARE_RESOURCES/SW_COMPONENT/SW_DRIVER/st-link_v2_usbdriver.zip

When the debugger issues the following message, it is usually an indication that the drivers are not installed or are installed incorrectly:

  Error creating session 
  The debug instrument IO could not be initialized. 
  The GDI debug instrument provided the following error message. 
  Cannot open shared library STLinkUSBDriver.dll

Support for Keil MCB1760 evaluation board

This evaluation board is now supported. See user guide for details.

Support for STM32L Discovery Kit

This evaluation board is now supported. Select the STM32L152RB for your project before creating a board configuration

Control program, ccarm, supports device selection

The control program, ccarm, now allows supplying a full device name to the -C and --cpu options. The supported devices are defined in the processors.xml file in the product's etc directory. With the device selection ccarm passes information about the used core and fpu support for code generation to the compiler and information about on-chip memory sizes, libraries and LSL file to the linker.
Example:

> ccarm -v -t --cpu=STM32F417IG hello.c
+ /usr/src/arm/dvl/linux/carm/bin/carm -CARMv7EM --fpu=VFPv4-sp -o hello.src hello.c
+ /usr/src/arm/dvl/linux/carm/bin/asarmt -CARMv7EM -o hello.obj hello.src
+ /usr/src/arm/dvl/linux/carm/bin/lkarm hello.obj -o hello.abs -CARMv7EM -D__PROC_STM32F417IG__
  -D__DEVICE_LSL_FILE=stm32f4xx.lsl -D__FLASH_SIZE=1024k -D__SRAM_SIZE=192k --map-file
  -L/usr/src/arm/dvl/linux/carm/lib/v7EM/le/VFPv4-sp -lcthumb -lfpthumb -lrtthumb

Standalone command-line script debugger included

This version of the debugger can be used to run and debug debugger scripts. This is for example useful for automatic test purposes. A separate user guide for the script debugger has been added to the product.

Select JTAG or SWD for debugging

The debugger configuration has been extended with support for selecting either a JTAG or an SWD connection.

Fixed issues for v4.0r1

New Features

Improvements

Fixed Problems

The list of open issues for v4.0r1 can be found on the internet.

License Information

15-day Trial

When using the product without a valid license, the tools will run in trial mode. This means you can use the toolset 15 days with full functionality. When running in trial mode, each tool will report the number of days left. When using a license that does not cover the full toolset, the tools that are not covered by the license will run in trial mode.

When after installing the license file the tools that are covered by the license still report that they are running in trial mode, this means that there is a license error. If you want to force the termination of the trial mode to get the FLEXlm error message you can set the environment variable FORCE_NO_TRIAL to "yes".

How to Obtain a License Key

All TASKING products include the industry standard FLEXlm license management software. In order to be able to run this toolset, you will need a license key, although you can use the full functionality during the 15 day trial period as described above. You can only obtain a license key if you have purchased this product.

To obtain a license key, you can start the License Administrator from the program group of your installed TASKING toolset. In case you still need to install the toolset, you can start the License Administrator by setting a check mark at the end of the setup/installation process. The wizard of the License Administrator will guide you through the steps to obtain your license key.
Once you have received your license key from Altium, you can install it on your system by running the License Administrator again. Alternatively you can simply save the license key as the file 'license.dat' in the C:\FLEXLM folder on your PCs hard disk.

More information is available on http://www.tasking.com/support/flexlm. On this page you also find assistance to setup a floating network license, or for installation on Linux or Sun systems.