ARM microcontroller code development with eclipse?

[KC8LDO]

Shakthi;

This is what I'm recommending to a friend, coworker, for doing development 
work in a Linux environment at home for the ARM microcontroller below:

http://www.eclipse.org/

http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-ecl-cdt1/index.html
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-eclipse-stlcdt/

http://www.gnuarm.org/home.html

http://www.freertos.org/

I just got a commercial development IDE from this place for use at work:

http://www.keil.com/arm/

The company I work for paid for it and you're limited to just TWO 
installations using their Internet based license server. This is the same 
IDE used by the engineering groups at our sister companies. Everybody wants 
to use the same set of tools so code can be freely exchanged between the 
various departments. Yes you have to be on the Internet to connect to their 
server which does something with the serial number you get for your 
installation, by email, and a machine "fingerprint" that is registered with 
Keil. Once the license is installed it unlocks the package components 
depending on what you paid for.

This is very expensive at $4800 for the unlimited version, MDK-ARM, which is 
what you must have to get the RTOS option. Then if you want any extra 
libraries to do TCP/IP - USB etc. that's another $4895! So for a complete 
tool set you'll spend almost $10K!!!

For hobby use, or for those "midnight engineering" projects when you're done 
with your day job, one just can't spend that kind of money. Looking for free 
and open source tools is the only viable alternative. It seems that the ARM 
microcontroller is a VERY popular 32 bit device. I would like to see Linux 
support it with up to date tools and doc's out of the box so to speak.

The Keil IDE has some very nice features, like a logic analyzer - full 
peripheral emulation in the debugger - real time debugging using a JTAG 
interface etc., but you pay dearly for that. If you don't need it or can 
work without it then another solution has to be out there.

The above mentioned friend spent about $200 to get a development board, for 
home experimentation, from these people:

http://www.armkits.com/Product/lpceb2000.asp

And several of the optional CPU complex's to plug in to it:

http://www.armkits.com/Product/lpc2000s.asp
http://www.armkits.com/Product/lpc2000a.asp
http://www.armkits.com/Product/lpc2000b.asp

The above software tools are what I was recommending he try out for a 
programming environment. I haven't seen the tools that are included with the 
development board, but I wouldn't be surprised that they weren't that good. 
Thus my questions.

Regards;

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

"There is only one boss. The customer.
And he can fire everybody in the
company from the chairman on down,
simply by spending his money somewhere
else."

-Sam Walton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shakthi Kannan" <shakthimaan at gmail.com>
To: "KC8LDO" <kc8ldo at arrl.net>; "Community assistance, encouragement, and 
advice for using Fedora." <fedora-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Monday, December 28, 2009 3:00 AM
Subject: Re: ARM microcontroller code development with eclipse?


> Hi,
>
> --- On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 1:19 PM, KC8LDO <kc8ldo at arrl.net> wrote:
> | Anybody using eclipse for code development using the bin tool chain for 
> the
> | ARM 7 and the C/C++ plug-in?
> \--
>
> No. I just use a Makefile with the set PATH.
>
> ---
> | I'm looking for comments or suggestions on how to effectively setup the
> | environment under Linux on a F11 or F12 box.
> \--
>
> Which environment? Can you please provide URL for the tools that you
> want to setup, and any INSTALL document?
>
> You could also join the Fedora Electronic Lab [1] mailing list for
> these discussions:
>
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-electronic-lab-list
>
> If there is some Free/Open Source Software that needs to be added, you
> can file a ticket for the same:
>
> https://fedorahosted.org/fedora-electronic-lab/report/1
>
> Regards,
>
> SK
>
> [1] FEL. http://spins.fedoraproject.org/fel/
>
> -- 
> Shakthi Kannan
> http://www.shakthimaan.com
>