A cloud-based integrated development environment for embedded systems

Developing software for embedded systems may be a challenging task. Next to solid programming skills using the C language (and Assembly) elaborate know-how about the target controller and surrounding hardware is mandatory. Furthermore, setup of the required tooling (compiler infrastructure, debug interfaces, etc.) can be a cumbersome task, especially when supporting multiple different host operating systems. Especially for beginners, this tooling aspect can turn out as an intriguing problem. This paper presents a cloud based integrated development environment (Cloud IDE) for embedded systems based entirely on open-source solutions that has the potential to ease some of these burdens. In contrast to existing solutions it supports flashing and debugging of a target board attached to the local host computer whereas, the entire development takes place in a cloud environment.