advancing from Keil uvision 3.0?

Question

I am working on an old old project that uses Keil uvision 3.0 along with GNU compiler with arm-uclibc- prefix and Cygnus those are very old tools with wierd bugs. no outocomplete bad syntaxhighlightning, no object browser and so on. I cannot leave the IDE as far as i know it because its the only way I can use JTAG for debugging and create Hex Files compatible to my arm processor

can any1one suggest a modern tool that will allow me to work with my atmel at91m55800a arm processor?

or perhaps a tool that will allow me to do the devolopment with modern fetures like auto complete. advance syntax highlightning,object browser and so on? support for JTAG debugging (ulink) would be legendery

and il use keil only to build and debug?

Answer 1

Modern IDEs that will work with the ELDK or your own built toolchain to do cross-compilation to ARM7a target include:

• Eclipse-CDT
• Codeblocks
• QtCreator
• CodeLite

These IDEs have code completion and object browser either built into the IDE or avaliable as plugins.

Eclipse-CDT supports Jtag Debbuging with a plugin as documented for a similar at91 arm system here

EHEP is a Hex Editor plugin for Eclipse-CDT. Codeblocks HexEditor plugin is a Hex Editor plugin for Codeblocks.

As wallyk said ELDK is probably easier than building your own toolchain.

As you are on Windows, this gives you two options:

1. Use ELDK with Cygwin, which works though is at least 10% to 20% slower than running it with Linux.

2. Use ELDK in a Linux Virtual Machine with Virtualbox

Several resources for setting up Eclipse-CDT with an ARM toolchain include

• Getting to grips with Eclipse: cross compiling
• Using Eclipse to develop for Embedded Linux on a Windows Host
• ARM Cross Development with Eclipse

Resources for setting Codeblocks with an ARM toolchain include

• Cross-Compiling in Code::Blocks and Running Your Program on the Target Device
• Code::Blocks for ARM I believe this resource uses the GNUARM toolchain instead of ELDK.

If none of these options are viable for you, you could always upgrade to Keil uvision 4.

Another alternative for you is to use one of these the listed IDEs with the same toolchain that is used by Keil uvision 3.0. That way you get all the benefits of the newer IDE with the same compilation of your old toolchain.

Answer 2

Any reason not to use the latest ELDK? It supports generic compiling for the ARM7a target, and can be hosted on any modern Linux x86 system, including 64 bit.

Maybe the question is more about an IDE than a compiler? The autocomplete mention makes me wonder what you are looking for.