IAR Systems has announced the IAR Advanced Development Kit for STR912, the first in a new product family of integrated suites for full product development. This first Advanced Development Kit (ADK) has been designed to offer all the necessary components for professional product development and debugging on the recently introduced STMicroelectronics STR912 microcontroller (MCU) family. The package allows a price point substantially lower than that of all the individual components, and enables a seamless migration to the new devices for developers already familiar with STR7 MCUs and with the intuitive IAR Embedded Workbench integrated development environment (IDE).
The IAR Advanced Development Kit for STR912 (ADK-STR912) comprises a BaseLine version of IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM, with 512kB code generation capability and support for the STR9xxxxx family of MCUs; an IAR Development Board fitted with a STR912FW44x device; an IAR J-Trace embedded trace macrocell (ETM) trace debugger with 2MB trace buffer; a trace cable and JTAG USB cable. The availability of trace debugging through ETM offers the benefit of being able to trace bugs that are difficult to detect by other means, and thus speeds the development of the more complex applications that are enabled by the STR9.
Commented Mark Rootz, Marketing Manager for ARM9 Products at ST's Microcontroller Division "The STR910 series is the world's first ARM9-based general-purpose Flash microcontroller, and is an important addition to our product range. We are delighted that IAR Systems has chosen the STR912 as the basis for its first Advanced Development Kit, and we are pleased to be working with them in making it available to our customers."
The STR912 is an ARM9-based embedded controller that is ideal for a wide variety of applications such as point-of-sale terminals, industrial automation, security and surveillance, vending machines, communication gateways, serial protocol conversion, and medical equipment. The ARM966E-S core can perform single-cycle DSP instructions, which makes it particularly suitable for speech processing, audio algorithms and low-end imaging. The STR912 chip is also equipped with 16/32-bit Flash with Ethernet, USB, CAN, AC motor control, 4 timers, ADC, RTC, and DMA.
The advent of more complex 32-bit ARM-powered devices at a reasonable cost is driving an increasing demand for a cost-effective full professional tool suite that can handle both development and debugging — JTAG and trace. Until now, the cost of each tool component has been an inhibiting factor to the developer who needs access to efficient and advanced development methodologies. The ADK-STR912 is priced at around EUR 4,400 — only just over half the price of its nearest competitor. The combination of tools in the ADK, combined with its attractive price point, offers developers exactly what they need for advanced development.
The IAR Advanced Development Kit for STR912 is available now from IAR Systems, IAR Systems' sales representatives and from STMicroelectronics.