Accelerate automotive software development on NXP S32K3 MCUs with NXP S32DS and IAR for Arm

Accelerate automotive software development on NXP S32K3 MCUs with NXP S32DS and IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm

A case study on how to combine the advantages of the original MCU development environment with industry-leading software tools to accelerate the development of mission-critical applications

As the market demand and the automotive industry continue to promote the "new four modernizations" of electrification, networking, intelligence and sharing , engineers will face more and more software development projects and use high-performance MCUs with automotive grade and functional safety certification to develop related applications. Combining the MCU development environment provided by MCU suppliers with industry-leading development tools will greatly improve the development efficiency and performance of developers. This article takes the S32K series 32-bit Arm Cortex automotive MCU, which is widely used in the automotive industry , as an example to introduce how to quickly develop high-performance automotive MCU applications by integrating and utilizing its S32DS development environment and the IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm tool chain, which has been widely adopted in the industry.

Since its launch in 2017, NXP S32K1 MCU has been widely used in the automotive electronics market. On this basis, NXP launched the S32K3 MCU in 2020, further expanding the S32K1 MCU series based on Arm Cortex-M0+/M4F. The new S32K3 MCU is based on Arm Cortex-M7 and provides multi-core and lock-step options to support functional safety ISO 26262 ASIL B/D. The S32K3 MCU is mainly used in automotive body electronic systems, battery management and emerging domain controllers.

Figure 1: NXP S32K (Source: NXP)

To address the increasing software complexity, NXP has launched a real-time driver (RTD) that supports real-time software on AUTOSAR and non-AUTOSAR applications, mainly for Arm Cortex-M cores, so that all software layers comply with ISO 26262 requirements . This allows applications that meet relevant certification requirements to be completed quickly.

Figure 2: NXP Real-Time Driver (RTD) (Source: NXP)

NXP S32K3 MCU has a wide range of partners to help customers develop. As an important partner of NXP, IAR Systems provides professional embedded software development tools.

The latest IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm V9.20.1 has officially supported NXP S32K3 MCU (see Reference 1). IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm V8.50.10 functional safety version can be used for application development based on S32K3 real-time driver (RTD).

Figure 3: IAR Systems embedded software development tools (Source: IAR Systems)

IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm is widely used in automotive electronic software development. Its highly optimized compiler can generate highly efficient and compact executable code, maximizing MCU performance and reducing FLASH and RAM usage. At the same time, IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm has powerful debuggers and code analysis tools that can help R&D personnel improve development efficiency, improve code quality, and ensure product reliability.

To facilitate customer application development, IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm is integrated with NXP S32DS tools, allowing customers to quickly initialize projects on the IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm tools.

The S32 Configuration Tools in NXP's S32 Design Studio can quickly configure pins, clocks, and peripherals, greatly simplifying the configuration of the S32K3 MCU and accelerating the early preparations for development. Initializing the project through S32DS and then importing it into IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm for project development can bring great convenience to users of the S32K3 series chips.

The following will specifically introduce how to use NXP S32DS to create a project and import it into IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm to accelerate automotive software development based on NXP S32K3 MCU.

Installing IAR Eclipse plugin in NXP S32DS

NXP S32DS supports IAR Eclipse plug-in, but IAR Eclipse plug-in is not included in the S32DS installation package and needs to be installed separately. The method can be read in reference material 2. In practical applications, this applies to S32 Design Studio for ARM and also to S32 Design Studio for S32 Platform.

Create a project in NXP S32DS

Create a project in NXP S32DS and select IAR Toolchain for Arm as the corresponding toolchain:

Then use Configuration Tools to configure the corresponding pins, clocks, and peripherals and automatically generate the corresponding code:

Export S32DS project to IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm

When creating a project in S32DS, if IAR Toolchain for Arm is selected as the toolchain, the corresponding project can be exported and imported into IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm. For specific steps, please refer to Reference 3. The operation of exporting projects is applicable to S32 Design Studio for ARM and S32K1, and also to S32 Design Studio for S32 Platform and S32K3.

However, after following the instructions in the link, the IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm project folder directory is inconsistent with the original project folder directory in NXP S32DS:

For this purpose, IAR provides a plug-in called EWPtool, which can import the corresponding source file directory into the project. For details, please refer to reference material 4.

Here is what I did after importing from NXP S32DS into Workbench for Arm:

1. Delete the corresponding Freescale Processor Expert folder (the corresponding project folder directory will be deleted):

2. Add a new source file directory and select the corresponding project directory (point to the directory where the NXP S32DS project is created):

3. The project folder directory corresponding to IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm is consistent with the original project folder directory in NXP S32DS:

4. Since the program entry function and interrupt vector table in the startup code in NXP S32DS are different from the program entry function and interrupt vector table used by default in IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm, the following configuration is required (specify the corresponding program entry function in the Linker option and the corresponding interrupt vector table address in the Debugger option: "--drv_vector_table_base=_ENTRY_VTABLE"):

5. Then you can compile, download, debug and other related operations in IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm:

Summarize

This article takes NXP's latest S32K3 MCU and related software development resources as an example to show how to use the NXP factory-configured S32DS tool to build a project based on the S32K3 MCU, and select the industry's popular IAR Toolchain for Arm as the tool chain to improve the development efficiency of projects with high code quality requirements. Use the Configuration Tools in NXP S32DS to configure the corresponding pins, clocks, and peripherals, and automatically generate the corresponding code, and then export the NXP S32DS project to IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm for subsequent development. Use the flexible configuration of NXP S32DS and the efficient compilation efficiency of IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm to accelerate the development of automotive software based on NXP S32K3 MCU.

Of course, as more and more Chinese technology companies focus on industrial applications, medical equipment and other critical applications that require high reliability and high performance, there are opportunities to combine the advantages of MCU original development tools and high-performance tool chains provided by third-party manufacturers such as IAR Systems to develop applications in these fields. Engineer friends can learn more and try them out.

Further reading

Reference Material 1: IAR Systems enables next generation automotive applications with NXP's S32K3 MCU family

Reference material 2: HOWTO: Install IAR Eclipse plug-in into S32 Design Studio for ARM

Reference 3: HOWTO: Export S32DS Project to IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm

Reference 4: https://github.com/IARSystems/project-migration-tools

For more information about IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm, see IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm.

For more information about NXP S32K3, please refer to S32K3 Microcontrollers for General Purpose