Question

I'm planning on evaluating and purchasing Sourcery CodeBench for our project. Should I evaluate/buy Sourcery CodeBench for ARM EABI or Sourcery CodeBench for Stellaris EABI? Does Sourcery CodeBench for ARM EABI support Stellaris?

Answer

Sourcery CodeBench for Stellaris EABI Personal Edition is a discounted version of Sourcery CodeBench for ARM EABI, limited to use with the Stellaris microcontroller family.

Both development platforms provide a complete solution for development under Windows or Linux host computers when using Stellaris evaluation kits, including compiler and library support for Cortex-M3 devices and seamless integration with the StellarisWare examples and board support library. On both platforms, the Sourcery CodeBench Debug Sprite provides hardware debug support using the built-in USB debug interface (ICDI) on Stellaris evaluation boards, along with more advanced features such as:

• peripheral register browsing in the debugger
• flash programing
• semihosting which supports standard I/O between target and host

The Sourcery CodeBench for ARM EABI platform provides additional features and flexibility. It supports all ARM architectures, including ARM7, ARM9, ARM11, and Cortex. In addition, it includes an instruction set simulator (QEMU). On the ARM EABI platform, the Sourcery CodeBench Debug Sprite directly integrates with a variety of JTAG probes including the Mentor Embedded probes, Segger J-Link, Keil ULINK2, Actel FlashPro, and Altera USB Blaster, in addition to the Stellaris USB (ICDI) debug interface. Abatron and Macraigor debug devices are also supported via their GDB interfaces, but without the advanced features of the Debug Sprite.

Sourcery CodeBench for Stellaris EABI Personal Edition is priced at a discount relative to Personal Edition for ARM EABI. The price of Academic, Standard or Professional Edition is the same for both platforms.

We recommend the more flexible Sourcery CodeBench for ARM EABI if:

• You might target non-Stellaris processors.
• You want to use third-party JTAG probes.
• You need an instruction-set simulator.
• You are purchasing Standard or Professional Editions.

A summary of Sourcery CodeBench features for Stellaris development may be found on this page:

http://www.codesourcery.com/sgpp/partners/stellaris/