For an university research project, I need to write some console output and the same time write a file with data from the embedded board to the host. A logical choice for this is using semihosting.
Semihosting with LinkServer in VS Code
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Build and Debug QEMU in Docker
For an university research project we are implementing a software simulator for the EZH (or SmartDMA) co-prozessor present on some NXP MCUs.
This article describes how to setup and build QEMU in a docker container, including debugging QEMU with VS Code.
Continue readingDebug C/C++ Apps in Docker with VS Code: A Step-by-Step Guide
Debugging a C/C++ application inside a Docker Container using VS Code is surprisingly easy.
This article shows the needed steps.
Continue readingVisualize Embedded Power Data in VS Code
With the NXP MCU-Link Pro I can measure current and power/energy of an embedded target. In this article I describe how I can use and visualize that data in VS Code:
Building the MetaClockClock78: My Largest Clock Project Yet
From my previous MetaClockClock project, I still had some hardware available. So I decided to build my largest build so far: to clocks with 78 clocks each.
Tutorial: Creating Self-Contained MCUXpresso SDK Projects
In Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Repositories with VS Code and Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west I showed how to get the MCUXpresso SDK. In this article it is about tweaking and streamlining the project.
The result is a clean, portable and self-contained MCUXpresso SDK project.
Debugging Linux Apps with VS Code: A Step-by-Step Guide
Recently I have been asked “How can I debug a Linux application with VS Code?”. I’m covering that topic in my ‘Embedded Application Development Course on Linux”.
I realized, that I have never covered that topic in any of my blog articles. So here we go: I show how easy it is to use VS Code to debug a Linux application. You can use this for example with an Raspberry Pi. Or for example the NXP i.MX93 which I’m using in this article.
Continue readingTutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Repositories with VS Code
In “Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west“, I demonstrated the ‘west’ tool’s usage. It helps in acquiring an SDK repository. Instead using the command line tool, I can use the NXP VS Code extension to do the same.
Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west
In my earlier tutorial I showed how to install the necessary SDK tools. In this article I’m going to install the SDK sources. For this I’m going to use west. This is a command-line ‘meta-repository’ tool.
Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Tool Installation
The engineering and development landscape is constantly changing. This includes the embedded tooling and SDKs.
Back in the year 2017 I have used the version 2 (see Tutorial: Using Eclipse with NXP MCUXpresso SDK v2 and Processor Expert). Back then, it was Eclipse with make. Now we are in 2026 and things have changed to VS Code, cmake, ninja, python and west.
Luckily, although more and different tools are needed these days, the installation experience has improved significantly. It has shifted from installing multiple different tools to a streamlined installation process.
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MCU on Eclipse 