Synchronized tools for real low-power design

21st February 2011

ES Admin

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ARM/Keil and Hitex announce the Keil ULINKpro debugger’s adaptation to the analysis tool PowerScale which has been honored with the Embedded Award 2010. The combination of these tools allows an exact analysis of the embedded application’s energy consumption during modifying parameters. Typically available to developers for optimizing consumption are parameters such as deactivating peripherals, use of different low-power modes or reducing clock rates.

PowerScale identifies the exact power consumption by measuring current and voltage at up to four power domains simultaneously. To achieve this, the tool makes use of the ACM technology (ACM = Active Current Measurement) developed by Hitex. The combination with ULINKpro grants via the Keil IDE Vision detailed insight in the command processing while the microcontroller is in ETM or high-speed SWV operation. For each position within the software program with only one click in Vision the corresponding measuring value can be called in the PowerScale GUI, and vice versa, at every consumption curve there can be displayed which software code is responsible for it.

“The interaction of ULINKpro and PowerScale allows an exact analysis of the source code concerning energy efficiency. Embedded applications based on ARM Cortex-M processors can now be optimized more easily for low-power consumption,” said Reinhard Keil. “Many developers are already using Keil MDK and ULINKpro and can benefit from the connection to PowerScale by an corresponding update.”

The powerful combination for energy optimization is immediately available.