Silabs EFR32 support

Hello Mary and All,

Basic device support for the EFR32 series
was released in a software pack,
in June 2017.

But the devil is in the details.
At least one of the wireless stacks in this device family,
is only designed for specific compilers.

For instance, SiLabs RAIL layer for EFR32 is only available for
Studio Simplicity's compiler, GCC, and IAR.
See Pg. 2 of the following document, for verification:
www.wless.ru/.../QSG121.pdf

You can use GCC with Keil, it just takes some setup:
http://www.keil.com/support/man/docs/uv4/uv4_gnucomp.htm
In the picture on the above webpage,
be sure to move the *.a files to the "Library:" field,
because these are now more likely to be libraries than assembly files.

Using GCC is the only compiler option, in MDK-ARM,
to fully take advantage of the wireless stacks offered for the EFR32,
which are designed for other compilers. If you do not know,
feel free to contact SiLabs support, who can better answer questions
about their wireless stacks.

It's a good idea for any MDK-ARM user who want to develop on EFR32,
to contact SiLabs support:
http://www.keil.com/support/docs/3871.htm
to request an extension of the wireless stack's supported compilers
with the ARM Compiler (armcc, or the newer one, armclang).
This way, MDK-ARM developers using EFR32 devices can take full advantage of our tools.

Device family packs, written by ARM,
almost always provide startup files for multiple toolchains in
the pack's Device folder. This is one advantage of using
a CMSIS device family pack.

Assuming you installed MDK-ARM to "C:\Keil_v5",
and assuming you have download one of the EFR32 device family packs,
from the Pack Installer,
the packs (written by ARM's Keil team) will be stored at:
C:\Keil_v5\ARM\PACK\Keil
This will allow you to find the "Device" folder, with GCC startup files.

Remember not to use the Manage Run-Time environments device startup component,
because this is only useful for startup files designed for armcc/armclang, as of this writing. In the future, a component variant could be used to distinguish between different startup files.

The software pack does not contain any MDK-ARM examples,
so MDK-ARM users would have to migrate an existing example from another IDE.

For now, GCC and a project migration are your best bet.
Hopefully, if enough users contact SiLabs support, about this limitation, they
will add armclang or armcc support. And hopefully, they'll also write an MDK-ARM example,
for the EFR32 devices, to help convince even more developers to
choose their hardware and wireless stacks.

Thanks,
Zack

Hello Mary and All,

Basic device support for the EFR32 series
was released in a software pack,
in June 2017.

But the devil is in the details.
At least one of the wireless stacks in this device family,
is only designed for specific compilers.

For instance, SiLabs RAIL layer for EFR32 is only available for
Studio Simplicity's compiler, GCC, and IAR.
See Pg. 2 of the following document, for verification:
www.wless.ru/.../QSG121.pdf

You can use GCC with Keil, it just takes some setup:
http://www.keil.com/support/man/docs/uv4/uv4_gnucomp.htm
In the picture on the above webpage,
be sure to move the *.a files to the "Library:" field,
because these are now more likely to be libraries than assembly files.

Using GCC is the only compiler option, in MDK-ARM,
to fully take advantage of the wireless stacks offered for the EFR32,
which are designed for other compilers. If you do not know,
feel free to contact SiLabs support, who can better answer questions
about their wireless stacks.

It's a good idea for any MDK-ARM user who want to develop on EFR32,
to contact SiLabs support:
http://www.keil.com/support/docs/3871.htm
to request an extension of the wireless stack's supported compilers
with the ARM Compiler (armcc, or the newer one, armclang).
This way, MDK-ARM developers using EFR32 devices can take full advantage of our tools.

Device family packs, written by ARM,
almost always provide startup files for multiple toolchains in
the pack's Device folder. This is one advantage of using
a CMSIS device family pack.

Assuming you installed MDK-ARM to "C:\Keil_v5",
and assuming you have download one of the EFR32 device family packs,
from the Pack Installer,
the packs (written by ARM's Keil team) will be stored at:
C:\Keil_v5\ARM\PACK\Keil
This will allow you to find the "Device" folder, with GCC startup files.

Remember not to use the Manage Run-Time environments device startup component,
because this is only useful for startup files designed for armcc/armclang, as of this writing. In the future, a component variant could be used to distinguish between different startup files.

The software pack does not contain any MDK-ARM examples,
so MDK-ARM users would have to migrate an existing example from another IDE.

For now, GCC and a project migration are your best bet.
Hopefully, if enough users contact SiLabs support, about this limitation, they
will add armclang or armcc support. And hopefully, they'll also write an MDK-ARM example,
for the EFR32 devices, to help convince even more developers to
choose their hardware and wireless stacks.

Thanks,
Zack