Viosoft has announced Linux support for Intel's Mainstone board-level evaluation platform for the PXA270 processor. The Arriba Embedded Linux Edition for the Intel PXA270 addresses the main challenge with developing applications and drivers for multimedia processors: the ability to debug a live system at high speed, according to Hieu Tran, Viosoft CEO.

The PXA270 is the third member of Intel's XScale processor family, and it's the first in the family to include wireless MMX capability for multimedia acceleration, Intel's Quick Capture interface for still image and video cameras, and a number of other items.

Intel PXA27x processor block diagram
(Click image for a larger view)
Viosoft's Arriba toolkit includes a royalty-free source distribution of the embedded Linux kernel and a complete tools suite for importing, configuring, and integrating the various components of the Linux kernel with application code, from a single desktop environment. The Embedded Linux Edition for the Intel PXA270 comes pre-configured for the PXA270 Mainstone eval board, but also supports any PXA270 platform running Embedded Linux, according to Viosoft.

The new Arriba Embedded Linux edition provides a prebuilt version of the GNU C/C++ compilers and toolchain, and a source-level debugger, which features high-speed connectivity via Ethernet; the debugging of kernel device driver (including init_module code), threads, and processes from a single connection; debugging of device drivers without pre-empting the PXA270 servicing of external interrupts; a graphical debugger GUI hosted on both Linux and Windows platforms; and support for open-source Embedded Linux distributions and commercial distributions.

Viosoft's Arriba toolchain for the PXA270 in action
(Click image for a larger view)
Arriba also includes a patented OS-resident debug monitor (VMON2) capable of debugging embedded Linux static device drivers, embedded Linux loadable modules, applications utilizing shared libraries, and multi-threaded applications. A suite of integrated productivity enhancement tools including a file an directory comparison and merge tool, on-the-fly source code browsing, and integrated scripting is also included.

“In many instances, a TCP/IP link is the only channel of communication between the host and the PXA270 target. The Arriba Embedded Linux Edition gives developer full debug control of the target in such instances, without open-heart surgery to the target, or requiring compilation of the running Linux kernel image,” noted Tran.

---

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.