A two stage approach for a cost-effective and versatile debugging unit and starter platform

In courses dedicated to embedded systems software students train their skills and expertise using embedded hardware and the required development tools. In order to gain sustainable knowledge in embedded systems engineering it would be an asset, if the development tools and the hardware are available 24/7 to every student. This implies that the embedded platform and the desired development equipment - e.g. integrated development environment (IDE) and its licenses as well as the debug interface, etc. - have to be supplied by the university. One component in the development toolchain - the debug interface unit - is the target of optimization described in this paper. By not only trying to reduce the costs but also increasing the versatility, the effectiveness of the toolchain is improved. The implementation of such a debugger, the performance tests and the composition of the recommended development tools are described in this paper.