Arm RTOS C++ newbie advice

[Rocketman46]

Hi,

I have experience of 16bit microchip micros using embedded C, and i am about to move across to ARM RTOS C++. I have narrowed my chip vendors down to NXP and ST. As i am starting from zero on ARM development, could you offer advice on which of the above vendors, is the cheapest and easiest development route for books and development boards.

Also is the current trend to move across to C++, if yes what benifits are developers gaining over C. Or are develops mainly staying with C whilst using ARM.

Look forward to your reply.

Any help gladly accepted.

Thanks,

Rocketman46

 

[Easyrider83]

STM32 + FreeRTOS
Using C++ will require to use dinamyc memory allocation. Don't use malloc, it is not thread safe. Redefine it with heap.4 or heap.5 functions from FreeRTOS.
I'm using C++ for drivers, but not in commercial products.

 

[Aussie Susan]

IIRC the STM23CubeMX has an RTOS option.
Personally I don't use C++ for embedded apps as I consider the code should be short and tight as possible to use as little memory and CPU as it can. Things such as abstraction, classes and inheritance don't really fit this type of model (my opinion only).
Susan

 

[Rocketman46]

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. I am currently using windows 10. What free or single user IDE do you recommend when running STM ARM and Amazon Free-RTOS. I am new to this product range so any help gladly accepted.

Thanks,

Rocketman46

 

[Easyrider83]

Keil uVision is free for STM

 

[Aussie Susan]

STM32CubeMX is free and I run it under Eclipse which is also free. This environment runs on Window 10 although I run it on MacOS (its all Java based).
Susan

 

[Rocketman46]

Hi again,

Thank you for all your help.

I have another question, when it is mentioned must have ARM rtos linux experience. Does the linux part mean the designer is writing the code on a linux pc instead of a windows pc? What is the big benefit and attraction of writing all the code on a linux pc? I have previously stuck with windows, because all the terminal programs install and run nicely, i have good access to the usb and serial ports, and more bus readers work on window and not linux.

Look forward to your replies.

Rocketman46

 

[std_match]

Does the linux part mean the designer is writing the code on a linux pc instead of a windows pc

No, it means that you have written programs for an ARM processor running some real-time version of linux. It is common to do such work sitting at a Windows PC.

I think it is a bad idea to have such specific requirements.
The CPU architecture doesn't matter much, so it should be OK to have used real-time linux on any platform.

 

[andre_luis]

What is the big benefit and attraction of writing all the code on a linux pc?

It's all a matter of gaining experience and it's natural to be afraid to migrate from one OS to another, but there are many benefits. Think of Linux as a white paper on which you have some easiness to configure your settings, either before or after boot, that is, customization is quick to perform as well as the control over (e.g unwanted) processes. As for your concern on the peripheral device device drivers (namely, serial communication you mentioned), Yes, there are many options, so that will not be a problem. In short, it can be said that remote management of embedded Linux-based systems is somewhat less painful than if compared to Windows.

 

[Rocketman46]

Hi,

Thanks for your inputs, I am slowly getting up to speed.

So if i buy an ST development boards, either an NUCLEO-144 or a DISCOVERY board, can i run Linux free rtos on one of these boards. Is Amazon free rtos a Linux operating system that runs on an ARM chip?

Could you get me an example of a Linux free rtos development board.

Thanks,

Rocketman46