How to select ATJTAGICE or ATICE50?

Hi

We are developing a realtime kernel for the AtMega128. We are currently in the process of choosing if we should buy the ATJTAGICE for 300 USD or the ATICE50 for 3500 USD?

  1. The problem I see is that the ATJTAGICE inserts break code into the flash, in order to break. This implies that the flash has to reprogrammed whenever the break point is changed. Plus the actual code is infected with JTAGICE break code.

  1. The hardware is still running, when an break point is reached. Is it then possible to debug the source code, if the hardware continious running?

We are also going to make several timing measurements on the software, can ATJTAGICE do the job?

The problem with the ATICE50 is that it is much more expensive that the ATJTAGICE, So is it really worth givin 10 times more for the ATICE50 than ATJTAGICE ?

Thanks, Jesper, Denmark

Reply to
jesper
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Jesper:

One difference is that the JTAGICE connects to the device whereas the ICE 50 can actually emulate the mega128.

Also I have an ATJTAGICE and an ATICE50 that I am selling. We have an extra set that will not be used, so I need to find a home for them.

$180 US for the JTAGICE and $1000 for the ATICE50

e-mail if interested snipped-for-privacy@-takethisout-mineralsplus.com

Reply to
Ed Hobbs

Is this true? I thought the JTAG hardware in the chip contained registers and logic to implement most of the breakpoint setting, and CPU core probing needed to implement the debugger.

I am interested to hear about this.

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Christopher R. Carlen
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Reply to
Chris Carlen

ATJTAGICE

is

The Megas have internal hardware breakpoint logic for three (IIRC) hardware breakpoints. You don't need to reprogram the flash to change the breakpoints, but you are limited to those three. You *do* need to reprogram the flash for each edit/compile/debug cycle.

The key difference between the two is that the jtagice connects to the internal debugger port on the chip - it is the actual Mega chip that runs the code, while the ICE50 is a full emulator. You get advantages and disadvantages of each approach - the jtagice can be used on any board and with any (jtag enabled) chip. If Atmel bring out a new mega chip with a hundred pins, you will use the same jtag ice for it (requiring at most a firmware update). If you need to test electrical characteristics of the chip, such as ADC accuracy, the jtag ice is a better bet since you are using the real chip. Connection is much easier too - you just need to add a

10-pin header to the card, and you can have the connector on production versions of the cards. With an emulator, you have a battle getting a good connection to your cards, and have to make special versions of the cards for use by development folk. On the other hand, with the emulator you get much faster downloads, lots of breakpoints, trace, timing information, etc.

then

can

than

Reply to
David Brown

Hmm. Once the breakpoint is hit in the code, can one then single step after that with the JTAG ICE, or can you only stop there and get a register dump, memory dumps, etc.?

It would seem that running from flash wouldn't allow single stepping.

I'm getting closer to actually buying one of these things, so I'd like to learn how they work.

Good day!

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Christopher R. Carlen
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Reply to
Chris Carlen

hardware

reprogram

runs

and

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good

for

much

Yes, you can single-step - there are in fact four hardware breakpoints, and AVR Studio reserves one of them for single-stepping. You might want to have a look at the avrfreaks web site, where they have lots of reviews and users' comments on various tools. It's a while since I used the jtag ice for serious debugging, so I don't remember all the details.

Reply to
David Brown

Thansk for your replys they have been realy usefull.

I think that we will go for the ATJTAGICE instead of the ATICE50, because of the price and that it is easy to use in the field, if a product fails.

Thanks again. Jesper Denmark

Reply to
Jesper

you can try our AVR-JTAG $39.95

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it's complete ATJTAGICE replacement

Best regards Tsvetan

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PCB prototypes for $26 at http://run.to/pcb (http://www.olimex.com/pcb)
Development boards for PIC, AVR and MSP430  (http://www.olimex.com/dev)
Reply to
Tsvetan Usunov

That's no "true" single-step - in fact just a breakpoint is set on the following address, but if an interrupt arose, that next instruction may never be reached because the ISR might have screwed up things.

"Real" single-stepping in that case would relocate my view so that I could watch the instructions in the interrupt handler as they're processed.

BTW, rumors say that coming ATmega256 doesn't have JTAG but only DebugWire. Words about DebugWire say that indeed setting breakpoints means modification of flash contents.

Kolja

Reply to
Kolja Waschk

"Complete" isn't true - it doesn't have the circuits for voltage level conversion and works with 5V targets only, whereas Atmel's JTAG-ICE could be used with ATmega*L devices at lower voltages just as well.

But for 5V targets it's really cool (I'm currently using it!) due to its size and - price. I wouldn't ever consider to spend hours on building a similar one myself ;-)

Well, if YOU want to, take a look at

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If you own some STK where you can put a ATmega16 in and clock it at 7.3728 MHz, you're almost done with your homebrew JTAG-ICE ;-)

Kolja

Reply to
Kolja Waschk

correct, although the only reason for not working on less 5V is that our distributor didn't keep L version of ATMega16 we put inside, if you replace the chip with L version it will operate on less 5V (does anybody when there is MSP430 for 3.3V operation?)

absolutely true

Best regards Tsvetan

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Development boards for PIC, AVR and MSP430 
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Reply to
Tsvetan Usunov

and

That's true. The jtagice does not have as good debugging functionality as the full emulator. But it's got enough for most jobs - I could not justify the price of the full emulator (but then, I don't work with avrs all the time - it depends on your situation) for the use of the missing abilities.

DebugWire.

I haven't heard about that chip at all, nor do I know details of DebugWire. It's been a while since I poked around Atmel's website or avrfreaks.

Reply to
David Brown

could

I thought *all* msp430's worked at 3.3V, at least the msp430f13x family. They also work quite happily at 6.5V, as I found out on a card with a dud voltage regulator...

7.3728
Reply to
David Brown

No way! There are some C versions which work on 5V but all F parts we have tried (by accident of course) die instantly over 4.0V!

Best regards Tsvetan

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PCB prototypes for $26 at http://run.to/pcb(http://www.olimex.com/pcb)
Development boards for PIC, AVR and MSP430 
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Reply to
Tsvetan Usunov

I can se that you have a distributor in Denmark, where I come from. But they do not have the product on their list. What should I do, if I want to buy your product?

Jesper, Denmark

Reply to
Jesper

If Demotech have no stock you can order direclty from us, the instructions are on our web Best regards Tsvetan

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PCB prototypes for $26 at http://run.to/pcb(http://www.olimex.com/pcb)
Development boards for PIC, AVR and MSP430 
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Reply to
Tsvetan Usunov

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