This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

New to ARM - suggestions and how to start

Note: This was originally posted on 25th January 2010 at http://forums.arm.com

I'm new to ARM but have used MCUs like Microchip PIC, 8051, and MSP 430.

My main attraction the ARM platform is the availability of on chip peripherals like USB and SDRAM controllers.

I am an experienced C/C++ programmer.

Also, I bought one of these Mini2440 kits from FriendlyArm.net which uses the Samsung S3C2440.

I was able to write WinCE applications in Visual C++ but I am not sure how to program the ARM device at the system level without an operating system like WinCE.

Questions:
1) Is there a book or tutorial I can get to show me how to get started? From what I understand, I need a copy of ADS to compile code.  Once the code is compiled, how do I transfer the binaries into the ARM device / write it into the NOR flash of the FriendlyArm devices?  With the friendlyarm, I compiled a Windows CE NK.bin image which I loaded using their supplied DNS.exe program.   Can I compile the ARM programs somehow with Visual Studio 2008? 

The friendlyarm devices included a Parallel port JTAG. Is this JTAG supported in the ARM development tools or do I need to purchase another one?

2) How is SDRAM memory addressed in the ARM?  Can I just write it in C and declare a large 2MB array and address it with C style pointers?

3) How is the onchip USB used?  Is there a simple library like FTDI's D2xx or Silicon Lab's USBXpress where the functions are basically fopen/fread/fwrite?

Thank you in advance for the answers.
0