I would like to buy a good ARM/Cortex M development board - just curious any suggestions which are good to buy? I will be studying how to
bring these chips "up" and also doing lots of other things like DSP, audio, image processing, GPS, etc.. I just want to know if I"m good to go
if I use the GNU toolchain, Eclipse and/or Microsoft Dev Studion with or without Xamarin.
I want to really get deep with the ARM - from 3 perhaps or 5 or 7 up to CortexM series. The goal is to know enough to develop realtime systems and then
to also do some SoC types of systems - cellphones, etc..
I have been away from this kind of thing for a long time doing regular PC development in C++ and Python on a LInux PC and sometimes an emulator
for the LInux apps on Windows. I am in the process of moving my development lab and I will simply buy a new laptop and perhaps put Linux Mint on it.
Then use a Windows laptop if I need windows.
I want to learn 32 and 64 bit stuff and I will put DSP algorithms on the emulator board to test it out before burning it into a chip.
Any help appreciated.
PS I will also investigate this "project" myself - I think GNU is a good way to get things done. I also need to teach this to a friend.
It would be easiest to start with an MCU development kit, such as Keil MDK. This gives you access to a variety of software packs including startup code for over 6000 microcontrollers.
As for development boards, there are a myriad of different boards provided by microcontroller vendors. If you are looking for a single board to compare different Arm Cortex-M processors, the MPS2+ board is an FPGA based platform allowing you to swap and play with all Cortex-M cores.
Hi, thank you Ronan. I'm installing the Keil MDK on my HP Laptop because that is the only computer I have until I get all of my old computers from my previous house ... and I will try to get an MPS2+ dev board. I want to ultimately be able to program cellphone chips among others - ie. SOC's etc. And I will still try out the GNU toolchain alongside these tools. I guess I wonder how much a reasonable system will cost, hopefully I can do this for less than $1500.00. Let's hope I can do it.
Update:
So I've finished installing including the ULINK drivers although I haven't installed any packs yet as I have no hardware as of yet. That can happen later.
So I'll look into getting that MPS2+ board now.
Thanks again.
The above is my pack screen.
I guess it would be nice to scratch together a low-cost evaluator too - like GNU-Eclipse with somehow doing M, R and A series in sequence. Perhaps I could get a board for each series? Do you think that might work and be cheaper. I want to progress from M to R to A.
These are all very different processors and different use cases.,.. likely on the M core you would run bare-metal or an RTOS, whereas on an A core you are likely running Linux or other such expansive OS.
There is a trend for heterogeneous devices, containing (usually) a Cortex-A and Cortex-M processor. See for example the NXP i.MX families, or STM32MP1 family from ST. Perhaps these would work for you?
Hi Ryan, I know what it is that I want to do as one of the systems I want to build. Although it's a low-end cellphone platform (or mid-range anyway), the Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 with Adeno 506 graphics is a dual quad A53 system that's clocked at 1.8GHz. It runs Android 9 although I think it came with Android 8.1 initially. I want to build a smartphone development board out of that and then later migrate up to the faster 600 or 800 series Snapdragon platforms. I want to build a dev board that will have that platform which is used in a handful of smartphones - like a dozen or so use it. Frankly, it's not the fastest in that realm but it's at least a good starting point. So I need to either 1) Find a vendor that's done this or 2) Try to pull it together somehow myself, or 3) give up on that one, and simply use another.
In the meantime, I'll check out the platforms you've mentioned to me and perhaps a more readily available one.
The I mx might already have this.
I wonder if I can add a modem such as the Qualcomm X9 LTE to the systems?