Getting started with IAR PowerPac for MSP430

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• Getting started with IAR PowerPac for MSP430
• Mats Pettersson, IAR Systems

• Fast
• Everything can be found on www.iar.com
• Evaluation and kickstart versions free to
  download
• Demo after the PowerPoint slides
• Feedback and questions to support_at_iar.com

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Agenda

• Short introduction to IAR Systems
• Real Time Operating System (RTOS) and a File
  System (FS)
• IAR tools for MSP430
• IAR PowerPac for MSP430
• Support
• Live demonstration
• Summary

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Support
IAR Systems
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
RTOSandFile System
Tools
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IAR Systems

• Founded in 1983 in Uppsala, Sweden
  (Headquarter)
• About 140 employees
• Offices in the US (3), China, Japan, the UK,
  Belgium, Germany, Brazil and Sweden
• 80.000 application developers
• Partner with 16 of the top semiconductor
  companies

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Support
IAR Systems
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
RTOSandFile System
Tools
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• What is an RTOS?Software that manages the time
  and other resources of a microprocessor or
  microcontroller. It breaks down the application
  into multiple tasks each handling one aspect of
  the application. Its like having multiple
  CPUs!
• What is a File System ?Software for storing and
  organizing data on storage devices. Functions
  to create and handle files and directories in an
  application.

RTOSandFile System
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• Why use an RTOS ?
• Ensure that high priority tasks run first
• Deterministic response
• Saves power!
• Saves development time
• Easy to structure/divide code between
  developers.
• Correctness - easier to understand complex
  systems
• Makes programming more efficient/better
  structured
• Abstracts the hardware-dependence, porting
  easier
• and much, much more

RTOSandFile System
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Scheduling

• The algorithms that determine which task to
  execute
• Distinguish between tasks that are ready to be
  executed and other tasks that are suspended
• The task which is currently executing is referred
  to as the active task

RTOSandFile System
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Tasks

• Each task consist of
• The program code, which usually resides in ROM
• A stack, residing in a RAM area that can be
  accessed by the stack pointer
• A task control block (TCB), residing in RAM. The
  TCB is only accessed by the RTOS

RTOSandFile System
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Communication between tasks

• As tasks run in the same application, they
  sometimes need to communicate with each other to
• exchange data with other tasks
• synchronize with other tasks
• make sure that a resource is used by no more than
  one task at a time
• Can be achieved by
• Global variables..... ?
• RTOS communication mechanisms ?

RTOSandFile System
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Communication mechanisms

• Mailboxes
• A buffer that is managed by the real-time
  operating system
• Fixed message size

EventsTask events are messages to a single,
specified recipient

• Queues
• Similar to mailboxes, but enable inter task
  communication with larger messages
• Messages of various sizes

• Semaphores
• Used for managing resources by avoiding conflicts
  caused by simultaneous use of a resource
• Resource semaphore
• Counting semaphore

RTOSandFile System
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Task oriented design

• Benefits
• Clearer design
• Polling is avoided
• Adding a lower priority task will not affect the
  responsiveness of the system to high priority
  tasks
• Code can be modularized, making things easier to
  maintain and debug
• Saves power

RTOSandFile System
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File System features

• Fail-safe operations
• The driver makes only atomic actions and takes
  the responsibility that the data managed by the
  file system is always valid.
• In case of a power loss or a power reset during a
  write operation, it is always assured that only
  valid data is stored in the flash.
• If the power loss interrupts the write operation,
  the old data will be kept and the block will not
  be corrupted.
• Wear leveling
• makes sure that the number of erase cycles
  remains approximately equal for each sector

RTOSandFile System
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Support
IAR Systems
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
RTOSandFile System
Tools
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Complete suite of tools
IAR Development Kits
visualSTATE
IAR Embedded Workbench
JTAGdebugger
Verify, Validate, Implement
Compile
Debug
Deploy
Design
Target application
Idea
IAR PowerPac
RTOS Middleware
Tools
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Support
IAR Systems
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
RTOSandFile System
Tools
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Why use a commercial RTOS ?
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
Commercial RTOS?
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IAR PowerPacTM for MSP430
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Fully featured real-time operating system
• High performance file system
• Innovative business model similar to that of IAR
  Embedded Workbench
• Tight integration with IAR Embedded Workbench
• Easy to get started
• Board support packages

Additional components
IAR PowerPac USB
IAR PowerPac Source(RTOS File System)
IAR PowerPac Base (RTOS File System)
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Operating system
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Key features
• Small memory footprint (1.7 KByte for typical
  MSP430 implementation)
• Pre-emptive multi-tasking
• Round-robin scheduling
• Up to 255 priorities
• Unlimited number of tasks, semaphores, mailboxes
  and software timers
• Full interrupt support with nested interrupts
• Very fast context switch times
• Power Management

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RTOS performance
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
Memory usage Memory usage
Kernel size (ROM) 1208 bytes
Kernel RAM usage 28 bytes
RAM usage per task control block 18 bytes
RAM usage per resource semaphore 8 bytes
RAM usage per counting semaphore 4 bytes
RAM usage per mailbox 12 bytes
RAM usage per software timer 12 bytes
RAM usage event 0 bytes
Min. stack-size per task (RAM) 48 bytes
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RTOS performance
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
Timing Timing
Context switch time 270 clock cycles (67.5 µs), independent of number of tasks
Interrupt latency time max. 151 clock cycles (37.8 µs)
Kernel CPU usage/TICK less than 1 of total calculation time at 1000 Interrupts/second (1ms TICK)
Basic time unit (TICK) typ. 1 ms, min. 100 µs (10 kHz interrupt frequency)
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Support for MSP430 Low Power Modes
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Task oriented design is very useful if you want
  to save power
• Peripherals can be switched of when not used
• Wake up is possible through all enabled
  interrupts
• Efficient OS causes minimum CPU overhead -gt
  maximizing idle time -gt reducing power consumption

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Support for MSP430 Low Power Modes
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• PowerPac RTOS fully supports all MSP430 low power
  modes.
• RTOS always brings CPU into lowest power mode
  possible whenever CPU is idle
• Peripheral clock requirements are taken into
  account
• Lifts a lot of the burden for power management
  from the programmer

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Support for MSP430 Low Power Modes
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• The idle task
• The idle task is only active when no other task
  has something to do.
• Other tasks need to make operating systems calls
  to let the system know when shared resources are
  or are not in use.
• OS_POWER_UsageDec(OS_UINT Level)
• OS_POWER_UsageInc(OS_UINT Level)
• The idle task will depending on which resources
  are used, enter the lowest possible power mode.

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IAR PowerPac file system
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Small footprint, e.g. 12 KByte ROM / 1.6 KByte
  RAM
• MS-DOS/MS-Windows compatible FAT12, FAT16 and
  FAT32 support
• Multiple device driver support
• Multiple media support
• Caching functionality
• Check disk functionality
• Device drivers available for a number of media
  types

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PowerPac File System API layers
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• File System API layer
• - Contains functions in ANSI C stdio style,
  FS_FOpen(), FS_FWrite() etc.
• - Translates file operations to logical block
  (sector) operations.
• Storage API layer
• - Optimized for applications which do not require
  file system functionality.
• - Allows sector read and write operations to a
  storage medium
• - A typical application USB mass storage device,
  data has to be stored on a medium, but all file
  system functionality is handled by the host PC.

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Integration with IAR Embedded Workbench
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Example projects available from the startup
  screen
• Links to IAR PowerPac for MSP430 documentation in
  the Help menu
• Template projects within IDE for new library
  projects
• RTOS aware debugging via C-SPY plug-in
• Board Support packages

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IAR PowerPac for MSP430 - evaluation version
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Works with all EW430 product variants with the
  following limitations
• IAR PowerPac RTOS can either work without a time
  limit with a maximum of three tasks or create
  more than three tasks and work with a time limit
  of 15 minutes.
• IAR PowerPac File System can only handle one open
  file at any given time
• Time limited version will also be available

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IAR PowerPac business model
IAR PowerPac forMSP430

• Principle
• Base product in object code format
• Licensing model
• Seat license - per developer and CPU
• Full source code upgrade
• Group license (up to 20 developers)
• Site license (unlimited on the same site)
• No royalty fees
• Result
• Low-risk licensing model
• A license can be used in unlimited number of
  projects and products
• Affordable site license for unlimited number of
  developers

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Support
IAR Systems
IAR PowerPac forMSP430
RTOSandFile System
Tools
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Customer support
Support

• Support and Update Agreement (SUA)
• Free software updates
• First class world-wide technical support by
  telephone, e-mail and fax
• VIP Support contracts available
• My Pages at www.iar.com
• Read about new product releases
• Download product updates
• Transfer licenses to co-workers
• Manage your contact information

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Technical Resources
Support

• www.iar.com
• Tecnical notes
• Application notes
• My Pages with latest product updates
• Documentation
• User Guides for EW430 and PP430
• Reference Guides for all EW430 components
• Reference Guides for PP430 RTOS and FS.

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Support
IAR Systems

• Demonstration on MSP-EXP430F5438

IAR PowerPac forMSP430
RTOSandFile System
Tools
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Summary

• Our offering

• A tightly integrated RTOS, file system, and
  tools for developing embedded applications

• Perfect compliment to IAR Embedded Workbench

• Innovative low-risk price model

• Continuous add-ons for more middlewares

• Upgrade path

• Same license management system as IAR Embedded
  Workbench

• Local support across the globe.

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• Thank you!

Please send feedback and questions to
support_at_iar.com