SparkFun Forums 

Where electronics enthusiasts find answers.

Everything ARM and LPC
By notronrj
#75014
Hi everybody,

I've just received my Olimex LPC-P2138 dev board and I'm considering what development environment to use.

I know of 4 options:

1- YAGARTO
2- WinARM
3- IAR for ARM
4- Rowley CrossWorks for ARM ( http://www.rowley.co.uk/arm/index.htm )

Now I know that except for option 3, these environments are all built around the free compiler toolchain GCC. I'm sure options 1 and 2 are nice and have a benefit of being free.

It costs $150 for a personal use license for the Rowley CrossWorks compilers. Is it worth the $150.00?

Any comments on the merits of the using the options above?

Thanks,
User avatar
By leon_heller
#75020
The CrossWorks IDE includes an excellent debugger and simulator. Support is very good.

Leon
By notronrj
#75022
leon_heller wrote:The CrossWorks IDE includes an excellent debugger and simulator. Support is very good.

Leon
Thank you Leon. I've setup the GNU toolchain components in the past for different targets and I gotta tell ya, I'm tired of the "hassle". It's fun the first few times.. but then it just takes away from development time.

I very well may opt for a commercial solution this time around..
By TheDirty
#75024
I have Crossworks for ARM personal license and yes, to me it's definitely worth it to avoid the hassle. I struggled with Yagarto and Openocd for a week before finally giving up. I think it had problems with my Vista64, but whatever, CW was just install, add your code to a project, compile, and run.
By stevech
#75039
I used the trial versions of these. I chose to purcase IAR for ARM. I've been using it and a J-Link JTAG for some time now and am very please with the compiler, IDE and excellent phone support. This being a professional endeavor, my productivity is easily 20x better than with GCC. I was up and productive in a couple of hours with IAR's IDE.

I wanted to like Rowley's product, but it's GCC + an IDE, and no equivalent to the debugger in IAR (and possibly Keil). And Rowley doesn't support much of C99 like structure initializers by member name, and others.
By notronrj
#75043
stevech wrote:I used the trial versions of these. I chose to purcase IAR for ARM. I've been using it and a J-Link JTAG for some time now and am very please with the compiler, IDE and excellent phone support. This being a professional endeavor, my productivity is easily 20x better than with GCC. I was up and productive in a couple of hours with IAR's IDE.

I wanted to like Rowley's product, but it's GCC + an IDE, and no equivalent to the debugger in IAR (and possibly Keil). And Rowley doesn't support much of C99 like structure initializers by member name, and others.
What is the cost of the IAR tools for ARM? Can't seem to find any prices at the website...
By cfb
#75067
notronrj wrote: What is the cost of the IAR tools for ARM? Can't seem to find any prices at the website...
You can get an indication of their prices by looking at one of their dealer's sites. e.g. if you were in the UK:

http://shop.directinsight.co.uk/catalog ... Path=78_79[/quote]
By stevech
#75100
cfb wrote:
notronrj wrote: What is the cost of the IAR tools for ARM? Can't seem to find any prices at the website...
You can get an indication of their prices by looking at one of their dealer's sites. e.g. if you were in the UK:

http://shop.directinsight.co.uk/catalog ... Path=78_79
[/quote]

I use IAR and LPC2xxx ARM7s. I used free evals and compared it to Rowley (GCC) and Keil and another. Purchased IAR. Very very pleased. MUCH better than GCC and the IDE/Debugger for JTAG is great.

For hobby stuff, the free limited IAR does compile a pretty large program.
By Cannibal
#75414
I'm using Crossworks since it supports a number of the boards sold here, and was pleased to find they have excellent customer support. Also, they, unlike IAR, support the JTAG interfaces we can buy from spark.
By seulater
#75712
I have used many compilers over the years. after trying Rowley CrossWorks for ARM back in 2006, it was a no brainier for us to buy it.
over these last few years with them i have had nothing but great things to say about their tools and support.
By stevech
#75734
My problem with Rowley is that it's mostly an Editor/IDE/project manager atop public domain GCC, and perhaps their own improvements to the public C libraries. It's very good at that. But at the core, you are dependent on the freeware support, debugging, and keep-up-with-latest-hardware in GCC.

Also look carefully as to how well JTAG is supported in a debugger. IAR (and Keil I assume) support "Flash Breakpoints". So you can have any number of in-Flash or in-RAM breakpoints, not just the small number (2?) that JTAG gives you.

Rowley may correct me on this if I'm misstating.
By seulater
#75737
stevech, i though much like you did. But you have to use it to really understand all that they pack in there. it much, much more than a GUI editor.
By stevech
#75797
seulater wrote:stevech, i though much like you did. But you have to use it to really understand all that they pack in there. it much, much more than a GUI editor.
My judgement was that for professional work, small learning curve, high productivity, good JTAG support, IAR and Keil were significantly superior - based on using the trial versions from all v.s. what *I* expected for my job. Good that we have competition among the tool vendors and buyers with different priorities.
By seulater
#75814
Good that we have competition among the tool vendors and buyers with different priorities.
I agree, i too tried KEIL and IAR demos. We ran a battery of tests using all 3 demos. Cross Wroks was the best environment to work in and produced the fastest code.

I cannot comment on the JTAG support for rowley as we only use the JTAG for downloading the code.