Upgrade delivers J-Link to Atmel Xplained evaluation kits

Segger’s J-Link is now available on Atmel's low cost Xplained evaluation platforms, as an on-board debug probe, bringing the proven reliability and outstanding performance of the J-Link line of debug probes to the Atmel Xplained evaluation platform. The Atmel Xplained evaluation kits provide an on-board, single chip debug solution called Atmel EDBG for which Segger now has released an upgraded firmware to give the users the capability to convert their Atmel EDBG to a J-Link OB. The firmware has been developed in close cooperation with Atmel and can be downloaded from the Segger website, free of charge, says the company. The J-Link is known for having the highest download speed into RAM and flash memory on all supported targets. In addition, the J-Link allows setting an unlimited number of breakpoints in flash memory which is extremely useful, as most Xplained systems are based on Cortex-M0+ devices which only provide two hardware breakpoints. Segger also offers a free cross-platform GDB Server for J-Link which opens the whole GDB world to Atmel Xplained users, allowing them to use any GDB-based debug solution (e.g. emIDE and Eclipse) with J-Link. Of course, all J-Link features such as direct download into flash memory, unlimited number of breakpoints in flash memory are also supported for debugging via GDB. “Atmel has built a wide customer base for their SMART MCUs, used on the Xplained platform. We at Segger are excited to bring a high-end debugging experience to this community with the J-Link line of debug probes,” said Alexander Gruener, CTO and product manager, J-Link family of debug probes, Segger. Henrik Flodell, senior product marketing manager, development tools, Atmel, added: “We are excited to have J-Link is available for our Xplained users. The excellent features and performance provided by Segger’s J-Link will further enable Atmel customers to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions.“