Suggested IDE to develop on VF61 M4 core

In the next few weeks I’m going to evaluate the usage of M4 core of VF61 module.
I found some documents in the knowledge base; as an example

Since the several documentation was written in different moments, with different purposes, could you summarize which is the suggested IDE and tools to develop (compile and debug) for M4 core on VF61?
I’m interested in both the scenarios: FreeRTOS and bare-metal

We don’t actually have a preferred IDE to develop on VF61’s M4 core, customer usually use whatever they are familiar with.

That said, the build system in the FreeRTOS BSP uses GCC/CMake/GNU Make, so if you want to use our BSP as starting point, then an IDE which supports this combination is probably preferable. We successfully used Eclipse internally.

We tested VF61 with DS-5 and a ULINKpro D debug adapter using the bare metal example provided by NXP. The current FreeRTOS BSP does not come with DS-5 project files, but it should be possible to create those rather easy since the FreeRTOS BSP for i.MX 7 (which the FreeRTOS BSP for VF61 is based on) has such project files…

Regarding RTOS vs. Bare-Metal: You can use our BSP also as starting point for a bare metal application. It has the advantage that there are already linker files, header files and some driver code (e.g. UART).

Following your link I find a page with a lot of different tools.
I don’t find the “bare metal example”; could you provide a direct link to this example?

Thanks

I tried, unfortunately the NXP website seems not to allow to create a direct URL.

On the left side, in the category list, almost on the very end you will find Snippets, Boot Code, Headers, Monitors, etc.. This should give you only one download: Sample Code for Vybrid Controller Tower System.

Hello Stefan,
I see that DS-5 supports Vybrid VF61, but a (relatively) new solution from ARM is MDK with DS-MDK component which supports heterogeneous multicore devices.
This kind of support is allowed through a software pack and I see there is a pack for NXP i.MX7 with support for Toradex iMX7 board.
Unfortunately at the moment there is no pack which supports Vybrid VFxx (Toradex VFxx boards).

Maybe this can be useful for other customers, but do you think you can work together with ARM to add a software pack for VFxx modules?

Just asked back, there are currently no plans from ARM’s side.

Note also that Vybrid is kind of NXP’s first generation HMP architecture. The newer i.MX 7 (Colibri iMX7) has much better architecture (mainly in terms of isolation capabilities and power/clock gating for low-power application) as well as better FreeRTOS support, therefore we recommend to use i.MX 7 over Vybrid for HMP applications.

This can be a possibility, since we haven’t finished the project yet. I’ve just noticed that the price for VF61 increased (compared to some months ago - maybe for the new WEC 2013 license?).
Probably I’m going to order an iMX7 module to do comparative tests

Will CoIDE from ( http://www.coocox.org/software.html ) and CoLinkEx ( http://www.coocox.org/hardware/colinkex.php ) work for CortexM4 in VF61 or iMX7?

We didn’t test/try CoIDE and that debugger for Colibri VF61/iMX7.

Hello.

I tried to build DS-5 project for VF61 using FreeRTOS for VF61.
But DS-5 needs two VF61-correspondent files:

  1. Assebler startup_VF6XX_M4.s for DS-5 “arm”-folder (file in “gcc”-folder is incompatible with DS-5).

  2. Linker scatter-file for VF61 like MCIMX7D_M4_tcm.scf for i.MX7.

Where I can get these two files?

Hi @Volodymyr!

I’m afraid we don’t have the scatter file and the startup code for the VF61.

These were provided by NXP for the iMX7 but unfortunately not for the VF61.