The SEGGER Compiler available in Embedded Studio for ARM @SEGGERMicro
SEGGER is a company making electronics and software used by many makers on a daily basis, including the debug interfaces Adafruit uses for embedded system development. So what software does SEGGER use in developing their own products?
At SEGGER, we use our own tools to establish an internal feedback loop. This is extremely helpful in creating and fine-tuning our products. A significant amount of engineering time and effort is put into making our IDE Embedded Studio better and better, every day.
We felt there was one thing we should add: Our own compiler.
Although the included compilers, GCC and Clang, are well proven and widely used, it would be nice to have full control over the compiler, to maintain, tailor, and optimize it.
The SEGGER compiler easily beats the “plain vanilla Clang” in speed and also in code size, as well as beating GCC by most measures. It is up to par with commercial compilers.
They have been focusing on changes in the code generator for ARM’s Thumb-2 code, targeting Cortex-M based microcontrollers. Next steps are improved compatibility with other compilers, not just GCC & Clang, (for pragmas and other specialties) to make it easy to switch.
A beta version is already included in the latest version of Embedded Studio for ARM. The official release is planned for some time in Q1 of this year.
Being a part of Embedded Studio, the SEGGER Compiler can be used under the terms of SEGGER’s Friendly Licensing, which allows anybody to use it free-of-charge for non-commercial use and evaluation.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.