Test coverage is a very useful metric: it tells how much of your code has been covered by tests. Or the other way: it helps identifying areas of my code which has not been running tests. A new CMake extension in VS Code is available. It works with the new NXP LinkServer test runner to allow running tests on an embedded target. The really cool thing is: it collects and visualizes test data with coverage information in a single step:
The NXP SDK is git based which is great. If I create a project with VS code, it references the SDK cloned locally.
A standalone project structure is needed if you want to easily share a project with your team. It’s also necessary for sharing inside a classroom environment. This article shows how to use an NXP SDK project in standalone mode.
Continue readingNXP has released a new LinkServer software. It includes an interesting feature. The LinkServer test runner has been extended with a Semihosting console. This is not only very useful for on-target testing. With the Semihosting console, I have a bidirectional communication channel with the target. And I do not need any hardware pins or to run a debug session. All what I need is the CMSIS-DAP connection with the NXP LinkServer runner to have a command line shell:
The year 2024 is coming to its end, time for a Year-End-Processor-Expert-Component-Release.
Also, this is now the 10th anniversary of the releases on Sourceforge, starting with https://mcuoneclipse.com/2014/10/21/mcuoneclipse-releases-on-sourceforge/ back in 2014.
Continue readingNXP has released a new version of the LinkServer software. This is a utility for debugging and using scripting for a wide range of devices and debugging probes. It includes support for the MCU-Link, LPC-Link2, on-board and CMSIS-DAP based debug probes with the ‘LinkFlash’:
With the new release, it includes a graphical user interface (GUI) for flash programming. It also includes erasing, verifying, recovery, and saving the memory to a file.
Continue readingThe GNU Coverage (gcov) is a source code analysis tool, and is a standard utility in the GNU gcc suite. It works great in a hosted environment (e.g. Linux or Windows), where you have plenty of resources and a file system. But the gcov tools is relevant and usable for restricted embedded systems too. I have used it for years with the help of debug probes and file I/O semihosting. But semihosting does not come for free, depends on a library with support for constructors and destructors, plus relies on file I/O.
Fortunately, there is a way to use gcov without debugger, semihosting, file I/O and special system initialization: using a freestanding environment:
This article explains how to collect coverage information using a data stream for example over UART or USB-CDC. Key benefits are less code side, no need for a debugger or on-target file system, improved performance, better automation and flexible data collection.
Continue readingA new eclipse-based NXP MCUXpresso IDE v11.10 is available With this new release, it includes an even easier firmware update mechanism for the MCU-Link (LinkServer) debug probes.
Float and double data types area a bad choice for embedded applications. At least in most applications, and can or should be avoided, even with hardware FPU support present.
But how can I be sure that no floating point operations are used?
This article describes how to configure the GNU toolchain, so that no float or double operations are used, with the example of ARM Cortex-M. What I do? ‘Poisoning’ (!!!) the source code, force the gcc compiler to use software floating point operations and then catch them with the GNU linker :-).
Continue readingThe new year 2024 is coming, so time to close the current year with a new release: I’m pleased to announce a new release of the Processor Expert components, available on SourceForge and GitHub.
An important part of every CI/CD pipeline is having a testing phase. In this article I show how to use GNU gcov (coverage) with an embedded target, using Visual Studio Code as front end:
With this, I can run the code on the embedded target which stores the coverage data on the host.
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MCU on Eclipse 