The Designer's Guide to the Cortex-M Processor Family

Chapter 2

Developing Software for the Cortex-M Family

Introduction

One of the big advantages of using a Cortex-M processor is that it has wide development tool support. There are toolchains available from almost zero cost up to several thousand dollars depending on the depth of your pockets and the type of application you are developing. Today there are five main toolchains that are used for Cortex-M development.

Table 2.1

Cortex Processor Toolchains

1.  GNU GCC

2.  Greenhills

3.  IAR embedded workbench for ARM

4.  Keil microcontroller development kit for ARM (MDK-ARM)

5.  Tasking VX toolset for ARM

Strictly speaking, the GNU GCC is a compiler linker toolchain and does not include an integrated development environment (IDE) or a debugger. ...