Segger Microcontroller Systems

Last updated
Segger Microcontroller
Company type GmbH
Industry Embedded software
Founded1992;32 years ago (1992)
Headquarters Monheim am Rhein, Germany
Products Middleware components, JTAG development tools
Website www.segger.com

Segger Microcontroller is a private company involved in the embedded systems industry. [1] It provides products used to develop and manufacture four categories of embedded systems: real-time operating systems (RTOS) and software libraries (middleware), debugging and trace probes, programming tools (integrated development environment (IDE), compiler, linker), and in-system programmers (Flasher line of products). The company is headquartered in Monheim am Rhein, Germany, with remote offices in Gardner, Massachusetts; Milpitas, California; and Shanghai, China.

Contents

History

Segger Microcontroller was founded in 1992 by Rolf Segger in Hilden, Germany. [2] The first product was the real-time operating system (RTOS), now named embOS. It was followed by emWin two years later. Initial products focused on RTOS and middleware products. However, the company later produced ISP-programming tools (Flasher) and debug probes (J-Link). In 2015, Segger introduced Embedded Studio, their cross-platform IDE for central processing units conforming to the ARM architecture, though recent versions are also used by RISC-V. All products are developed, maintained and updated in Germany except for Embedded Studio, which is primarily developed by a team of developers in the United Kingdom.

Product categories

Debug and trace probes

Segger is most noted for its J-Link family, which supports JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) and SWD (Serial Wire Debug) debug probes for microcontrollers that have older ARM cores (ARM7, ARM9, ARM11), ARM Cortex-M cores (M0, M0+, M1, M3, M4, M7, M23, M33, M85), ARM Cortex-R cores (R4, R5, R8), ARM Cortex-A cores (A5, A7, A8, A9, A12, A15, A17, A53, A72), Renesas RX, Microchip PIC32, SiLab EFM8, RISC-V. [3] It is also repackaged and sold as an OEM item [4] by Analog Devices as the mIDASLink, Atmel as the SAM-ICE, Digi International as the Digi JTAG Link, and IAR Systems as the J-Link and the J-Link KS. This is the only JTAG emulator that can add Segger's patented flash breakpoint software to a debugger to enable the setting of multiple breakpoints in flash while running on an ARM device which is typically hindered by the limited availability of hardware breakpoints. [5]

In the following table, the top group are trace devices, the bottom group are educational / hobbyist devices.

J-Trace & J-Link Models [6] [7]
ModelHost
USB
speed
Host
Ethernet
speed
Host
Wi-Fi
type
Target
voltage
range
Target Trace
connector
(pins, pitch)
Target Debug
connector
(pins, pitch)
Target
download
speed (max)
Target
VCOM
UART
Segger
software
features
Photo
 
 
J-Trace PRO
(ARM & RISC-V)
3.0 SS1 Gbit/s None1.2V to 5V19-pins,
1.27mm
(150 MHz)
20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/sNoneAll
J-Trace PRO Cortex-A/R/M3.0 SS1 Gbit/sNone1.2V to 5V19-pins,
1.27mm
(150 MHz)
20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/sNoneAll J-Trace Cortex-ARM 1349x1466 230627.png
J-Trace PRO Cortex-M3.0 SS1 Gbit/sNone1.2V to 5V19-pins,
1.27mm
(150 MHz)
20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/sNoneAll J-Trace Cortex-M 1349x1466.png
J-Trace PRO RISC-V3.0 SS1 Gbit/sNone1.2V to 5V19-pins,
1.27mm
(150 MHz)
20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/sNoneAll J-Trace RISC-V 1349x1466.png
J-Link PRO PoE 2.0 HS100 Mbit/s
(PoE)
None1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/s2-pins
(10M)
All
J-Link PRO2.0 HS100 Mbit/sNone1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/s2-pins
(10M)
All J-Link PRO 1349x1466.png
J-Link ULTRA+2.0 HSNoneNone1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(50 MHz)
4 MByte/s2-pins
(10M)
All J-Link ULTRA-PLUS 1349x1466.png
J-Link WiFi 2.0 HSNone802.11b/g/n
(2.4GHz)
1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(15  MHz)
1 MByte/s2-pins
(115.2K)
All J-Link Wifi 1349x1466.png
J-Link PLUS,
J-Link PLUS Compact
2.0 HSNoneNone1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(15 MHz)
1 MByte/s2-pins
(115.2K)
All J-Link PLUS Classic 1349x1466.png J-Link PLUS-Compact 1349x1466.png
J-Link BASE,
J-Link BASE Compact
2.0 HSNoneNone1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(15 MHz)
1 MByte/s2-pins
(115.2K)
Limited J-Link BASE Classic 1349x1466.png J-Link BASE-Compact 1349x1466.png
J-Link EDU
(discontinued)
2.0 HSNoneNone1.2V to 5VNone20-pins,
2.54mm
(15  MHz)
1 MByte/s2-pins
(115.2K)
Limited J-Link EDU 1349x1466.png
J-Link EDU Mini2.0 FSNoneNone3.3VNone9-pins,
1.27mm
(4 MHz)
0.2 MByte/sNoneLimited J-Link EDU-mini 1349x1466.png
J-Link OB
(on board)
2.0 FSNoneNoneDependsNoneIntegrated
on dev board
(2 to 4 MHz)
0.1 to 0.2
MByte/s
DependsLimited

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AVR microcontrollers</span> Family of microcontrollers

AVR is a family of microcontrollers developed since 1996 by Atmel, acquired by Microchip Technology in 2016. These are modified Harvard architecture 8-bit RISC single-chip microcontrollers. AVR was one of the first microcontroller families to use on-chip flash memory for program storage, as opposed to one-time programmable ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM used by other microcontrollers at the time.

JTAG is an industry standard for verifying designs of and testing printed circuit boards after manufacture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embedded software</span> Computer software written to control machines not typically thought of as computers

Embedded software is computer software, written to control machines or devices that are not typically thought of as computers, commonly known as embedded systems. It is typically specialized for the particular hardware that it runs on and has time and memory constraints. This term is sometimes used interchangeably with firmware.

Nios II is a 32-bit embedded processor architecture designed specifically for the Altera family of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) integrated circuits. Nios II incorporates many enhancements over the original Nios architecture, making it more suitable for a wider range of embedded computing applications, from digital signal processing (DSP) to system-control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARM7</span> 32-bit ARM processor architecture

ARM7 is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings for microcontroller use. The ARM7 core family consists of ARM700, ARM710, ARM7DI, ARM710a, ARM720T, ARM740T, ARM710T, ARM7TDMI, ARM7TDMI-S, ARM7EJ-S. The ARM7TDMI and ARM7TDMI-S were the most popular cores of the family.

ThreadX is a highly deterministic, embedded real-time operating system (RTOS) programmed mostly in the language C. It was originally released in 1997 as ThreadX when Express Logic first developed it, later it was renamed to Azure RTOS (2019) after Express Logic was purchased by Microsoft, then most recently it was renamed again to Eclipse ThreadX (2023), or "ThreadX" in its short form, after it transitioned to free open source model under the stewardship of the Eclipse Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V850</span> 32-bit RISC CPU architecture

V850 is a 32-bit RISC CPU architecture produced by Renesas Electronics for embedded microcontrollers. It was designed by NEC as a replacement for their earlier NEC V60 family, and was introduced shortly before NEC sold their designs to Renesas in the early 1990s. It has continued to be developed by Renesas as of 2018.

Atmel ARM-based processors are microcontrollers and microprocessors integrated circuits, by Microchip Technology, that are based on various 32-bit ARM processor cores, with in-house designed peripherals and tool support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AVR32</span>

AVR32 is a 32-bit RISC microcontroller architecture produced by Atmel. The microcontroller architecture was designed by a handful of people educated at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, including lead designer Øyvind Strøm and CPU architect Erik Renno in Atmel's Norwegian design center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cypress PSoC</span> Type of integrated circuit

PSoC is a family of microcontroller integrated circuits by Cypress Semiconductor. These chips include a CPU core and mixed-signal arrays of configurable integrated analog and digital peripherals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Code Composer Studio</span> Integrated development environment

Code Composer Studio is an integrated development environment for developing applications for Texas Instruments embedded processors.

EFM32 Gecko MCUs are a family of mixed-signal 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits from Energy Micro based on ARM Cortex-M CPUs, including the Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M3, and Cortex-M4.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARM Cortex-M</span> Group of 32-bit RISC processor cores

The ARM Cortex-M is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Limited. These cores are optimized for low-cost and energy-efficient integrated circuits, which have been embedded in tens of billions of consumer devices. Though they are most often the main component of microcontroller chips, sometimes they are embedded inside other types of chips too. The Cortex-M family consists of Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7, Cortex-M23, Cortex-M33, Cortex-M35P, Cortex-M52, Cortex-M55, Cortex-M85. A floating-point unit (FPU) option is available for Cortex-M4 / M7 / M33 / M35P / M52 / M55 / M85 cores, and when included in the silicon these cores are sometimes known as "Cortex-MxF", where 'x' is the core variant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">STM32</span> ARM Cortex-M based Microcontrollers by STMicroelectronics

STM32 is a family of 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits by STMicroelectronics. The STM32 chips are grouped into related series that are based around the same 32-bit ARM processor core: Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7, Cortex-M33. Internally, each microcontroller consists of ARM processor core(s), flash memory, static RAM, debugging interface, and various peripherals.

Mbed is a development platform and operating system for internet-connected devices based on 32-bit ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers. The project was a collaboratively developed by Arm and its technology partners. As of July 2024 Mbed is no longer actively developed by Arm.

XMC is a family of microcontroller ICs by Infineon. The XMC microcontrollers use the 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores from ARM Holdings, such as Cortex-M4F and Cortex-M0. XMC stands for "cross-market microcontrollers", meaning that this family can cover due to compatibility and configuration options, a wide range in industrial applications. The family supports three essential trends in the industry: It increases the energy efficiency of the systems, supports a variety of communication standards and reduces software complexity in the development of the application's software environment with the parallel released eclipse-based software tool DAVE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NXP LPC</span> Family of 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits

LPC is a family of 32-bit microcontroller integrated circuits by NXP Semiconductors. The LPC chips are grouped into related series that are based around the same 32-bit ARM processor core, such as the Cortex-M4F, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M0+, or Cortex-M0. Internally, each microcontroller consists of the processor core, static RAM memory, flash memory, debugging interface, and various peripherals. The earliest LPC series were based on the Intel 8-bit 80C51 core. As of February 2011, NXP had shipped over one billion ARM processor-based chips.

The MSP432 is a mixed-signal microcontroller family from Texas Instruments. It is based on a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F CPU, and extends their 16-bit MSP430 line, with a larger address space for code and data, and faster integer and floating point calculation than the MSP430. Like the MSP430, it has a number of built-in peripheral devices, and is designed for low power requirements. In 2021, TI confirmed that the MSP432 has been discontinued and "there will be no new MSP432 products".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apache Mynewt</span> Real-time operating system

Apache Mynewt is a modular real-time operating system for connected Internet of things (IoT) devices that must operate for long times under power, memory, and storage constraints. It is free and open-source software incubating under the Apache Software Foundation, with source code distributed under the Apache License 2.0, a permissive license that is conducive to commercial adoption of open-source software.

References

  1. "Home Page". Segger. Archived from the original on December 6, 2024.
  2. "About Us - The Company". Segger. Archived from the original on December 6, 2024.
  3. Segger J-Link Product Line
  4. Advertisement
  5. Circuit Cellar - Digital Library - New Product News Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "J-Trace Products". Segger Microcontroller Systems. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024.
  7. "J-Link Products". Segger Microcontroller Systems. Archived from the original on November 12, 2024.
  8. Other J-Links; segger.com
  9. J-Link adapters and isolators; segger.com