Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments


Stellaris Design Support

Texas Instruments' Stellaris Family Development Kits provide the hardware and software tools to develop and prototype embedded applications. Each kit includes different evaluation tools suites for development tools, documentation, a complete StellarisWare Firmware Development Package, and all the cables necessary to begin rapid development using Stellaris microcontrollers.

Evaluation kits provide a low cost means of evaluating Stellaris family microcontrollers. Slightly less feature-rich than Stellaris family Development kits, evaluation kits focus on a single set of tools and a single Stellaris family member. Evaluation kits created by TI span the spectrum from evaluation to design to application-specific prototyping by functioning both as an evaluation platform and as a serial in-circuit debug interface for any Stellaris-based target board.

All Stellaris Reference Design Kits are offered as open-tool solutions, meaning that TI provides all the hardware and software design files to allow Stellaris developers to modify or copy-exactly the designs for use in their specific end application. Each reference design is also available to purchase (in volume) as a standalone module.

With Stellaris microcontrollers, developers can choose to keep all programming in C/C++, even interrupt service routines and startup code. TI provides StellarisWare software that includes source code and royalty-free libraries for applications support.

TI software compiles on ARM/Keil Microcontroller Development Toolkit for ARM, IAR Embedded Workbench, Code Red Technologies' RedSuite, Code Sourcery SourceryG++, and generic GNU development tools.

The Stellaris Peripheral Driver Library is a royalty-free set of functions for controlling the peripherals found on the Stellaris family of ARM Cortex-M3 microcontrollers. The Stellaris Peripheral Driver Library performs both peripheral initialization and peripheral control functions with a choice of polled or interrupt-driven peripheral support.

The Stellaris Graphics Library is a royalty-free set of graphics primitives and a widget set for creating graphical user interfaces on Stellaris microcontroller-based boards that have a graphical display. The sample applications and detailed documentation make it easier to integrate rich graphics into projects.

The Stellaris USB library subset of USB functions simplify embedded USB control. Royalty-free sample applications are provided to enable efficient USB operations.

Code examples are available for the ARM Cortex-M3 platform with TI's extensive set of sample applications that the company provides royalty-free.

All Stellaris microcontrollers ship with a serial flash loader programmed into flash. Stellaris microcontroller's serial flash loader and the royalty-free Stellaris boot loader simplify in-system programming from the production process all the way to in-field updates.

TI provides extensive, well-documented application notes and software examples for use in several targeted industrial and consumer applications. In addition, TI offers several utilities, such as a GUI and command line Stellaris flash programmer, USB VID/PID sublicensing forms, and CAD and PLB Libraries for Stellaris microcontrollers.

TI, with the Stellaris family of ARM Cortex-M3-based microcontrollers, supports ARM's Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS), a standardized hardware abstraction layer for the Cortex-M processor series. The purpose of the CMSIS initiative is the same as TI's when creating the Stellaris family of ARM Cortex-M3-based microcontrollers: to standardize a fragmented industry on one hardware and software microcontroller architecture. The CMSIS enables consistent and simple software interfaces to the processor for silicon vendors and middleware providers, simplifying software re-use, reducing the learning curve for new microcontroller developers.