Hello,
I have a simulator application written for the target NXP LPC2478 using Keil IDE and armcc compiler. I have to create the executable in visual studio 10 so as to run google test framework. Can some one please help me in approaching this task.
Regards, Giri.
So when the hardware finally shows up is that the root of the frequent problems "I can't use the pin the hardware has connected" When I'm involved, the hardware is fully defined before coding starts. With hardware fully defined, it does not take long to get boards. I do not recall any software development that got to any testing beyond testing "funcxx()" before hardware was available. if any more is required before "the hardware finally shows up" a devboard serves nicely
Of course I'm involved from day one.
I can't write code that makes use of a specific capture pin if I haven't made sure that the relevant signal is routed to that pin.
But from me creating an Excel file with all the processor pins with supported functionality, and all the required functionality and then produced a complete list of pin allocations until I get real hardware I'll have to wait a while. The external electronics can often be too complex for it to be meaningful to take an evaluation board and try to bread-board the design.
If it takes 6-8 weeks until I have initial hardware, that is time when I have already written and tested a significant amount of code. I'm far better off concentrating on the requirements of external test harnesses for factory-testing of the hardware than building my own prototype hardware.
In some situations, there might be specific parts of the design where it might be relevant to mill a circuit board so some critical sub-function can be tested. But if you involve BGA components, it's normally way easier to just leave it to the guys with real production equipment.
When you see issues with people routing signals to totally wrong processor pins, that's normally what happens when people don't invest the required time to very carefully work themselves through the chip documentation before deciding which chip to use and before designing the electronics. That kind of stupidity will come back and hit them hard.
In the end, an evaluation board can be great to figure out if a processor is up to the task. But it's often too much work involved to try to make use of evaluation board when writing the real code. I only use them to evaluate processor load and when implementing the hardware mapping layer, i.e. the driver functionality. And I write and test most the business logic on a PC.