Category Archives: gcc

An Introduction to Kinetis Design Studio for Mac OS X

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I don’t own a Mac computer, and I try to keep my tutorials as multi-host-platform as possible. So it is always cool to see if someone else posts a nice tutorial on a different host machine: For all Mac (and as well non Mac) users, have a look at this tutorial Nash Reilly has posted: “An Introduction to Freescale’s Kinetis Design Studio.”

added_C_cross_compile_includes

It nicely explains downloading and installing KDS with the Kinetis SDK and then run a ‘hello world’ program on the hardware.

And very worthwhile to check out Nash’s other articles here too: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/author/nash-reilly

Happy Nashing 🙂

Linking additional Object Files with GNU Linker

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Sometimes I need to link an object file (e.g. bootloader.o) to my application, and I do not want to build it, or I do not have the sources to build it. There is a simple way with the GNU ARM Eclipse plugins to link extra object files:

Other Objects for GNU Linker

Other Objects for GNU Linker

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Aligning S19 Records to 64-bit Boundaries

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Many tool chains and linker are able to produce S19 files, such as with the GNU tools it is the ‘objcopy‘ which does this job (see “Binary (and S19) Files for the mbed Bootloader with Eclipse and GNU ARM Eclipse Plugins“). But these tools usually cannot handle the special cases. For example on the Freescale Kinetis K64F my serial bootloader (see “Serial Bootloader for the Freedom Board with Processor Expert“) had a problem with these lines in the S19 file:

Not aligned S19 file entries

Not aligned S19 file entries

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Using Precompiled Headers with GNU gcc in Eclipse

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Some of my robotics projects take a rather long time do a full build. When I developed applications with Visual C++ on the host, using precompiled headers gave me a big boost in compilation speed. I was looking for the same in similar with GNU and gcc, and as expected: gcc does support precompiled headers too. And indeed, I was able to cut down compilation time by 30% :-). So this post is about how to use gcc with precompiled headers in Eclipse/CDT to give my builds a boost.

using precompiled header

using precompiled header

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Going to Mars: Building a DIY Eclipse IDE for ARM Embedded Microcontrollers

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It has been a while since I published my ‘build my own DIY IDE’ (see “DIY Free Toolchain for Kinetis: Part 1 – GNU ARM Build Tools“). I have used that approaches in my classes successfully. Now a new semester is coming up, so time to update the instructions using the latest Eclipse IDE (Mars) and tools (GCC ARM Embedded (launchpad) with GNU ARM Eclipse).

Eclipse Mars Splash Screen

Eclipse Mars Splash Screen

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Tutorial: Using GNU Profiling (gprof) with ARM Cortex-M

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I have published a Sneak Preview how GNU gprof profiling looks for an embedded target ARM Cortex-M in an earlier post:

Freescale Kinetis Microcontroller Application Profiling
Freescale Kinetis Microcontroller Application Profiling

This tutorial explains how to profile an embedded application (no RTOS needed) on ARM Cortex-M devices with GNU gprof. Additionally I explain the inner workings to generate the data necessary for gprof.

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Debugging STM32F103RB NUCLEO Board with Segger J-Link

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The STMicroelectronics STM32F103 (ARM Cortex-M3) Nucleo boards include the on-board ST-Link v2 circuit which allows to debug the board. This circuit is similar to the OpenSDA circuit found on Freescale boards. Unlike the Freescale OpenSDA, the ST-Link is only the ST-Link: it is not possible to load a P&E Multilink or Segger J-Link or firmware on it. Luckily, the ST-Link has a SWD connector, but this connector is a non-standard one. So how can I debug that board with an Eclipse based environment with GNU ARM Eclipse plugins and a Segger J-Link?

Connected J-Link with Nucleo Board

Connected J-Link with Nucleo Board

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GNU Static Stack Usage Analysis

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Stack overflows are a big problem: If I see a system crash, the first thing usually is I try to increase the stack size to see if the problem goes away. The GNU linker can check if my global variables fit into RAM. But it cannot know how much stack I need. So how cool would it be to have a way to find out how much stack I need?

Static Stack Usage Analysis with GNU

Static Stack Usage Analysis with GNU

And indeed, this is possible with the GNU tools (e.g. I’m using it with the GNU ARM Embedded (launchpad) 4.8 and 4.9 compilers :-). But it seems that this ability is not widely known?

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Sneak Preview: Profiling Bare Metal Microcontroller Applications with GNU gprof

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I’m working on a conference paper and presentation, and tonight I had a break-through :-). So how cool is this: Profiling with GNU gprof a bare-metal embedded Cortex-M application (Freescale Kinetis K64F running the Freescale Kinetis SDK) in Eclipse:

Freescale Kinetis Microcontroller Application Profiling

Freescale Kinetis Microcontroller Application Profiling

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Tutorial: Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels with the Freescale FRDM-K64F Board – Part 4: Timer

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This is Part 4 of a Mini Series. In Part 3, I described the software concepts (see “Tutorial: Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels with the Freescale FRDM-K64F Board – Part 3: Concepts“). In this post I describe how to set-up the timer to trigger later DMA operations. The goal is to drive Adafruit’s NeoPixel (WS2812B) with the Freescale FRDM-K64F board:

NeoPixels with FRDM-K64F

NeoPixels with FRDM-K64F

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