January 15, 2000 - SofTec Microsystems announces the release of new in-circuit, real-time emulators for STMicroelectronics ST6 microcontrollers. The new series includes DS6225A (which support ST6200, 01, 03, 08, 09, 10, 15, 20 and 25 microcontrollers) and DS6265A (which supports ST6252, 53, 55, 60, 62, 63 and 65 microcontrollers). With a revised hardware section, a new Windows 9x/Me/2000/NT user interface and the support for new ST6 family devices, DS6225A and DS6265A are the most cost-effective, easy to use yet powerful tools for designing with ST6 microcontrollers.
DS6225A and DS6265A can be used to debug both code and hardware designs. DS6225A and DS6265A operate with or without a target system to allow unrestricted routine testing. You can select the clock frequency from 1 to 8 MHz in fixed steps through the user interface; no external crystal or oscillator is needed, thanks to an internal frequency synthesizer. DS6225A and DS6265A are non-intrusive and transparent emulators. No target processor resources are used. No interrupts, no I/O, and no memory locations are reserved for emulation purposes. No wait states are inserted, so that true, real-time execution is ensured. No spurious clock cycles are inserted between steps.
Accurate in-circuit, real-time emulation is achieved using a highly integrated external unit that is easily connected to the PC serial port. DS6225A and DS6265A are controlled by a common, Windows based user interface that accepts binary and Intel-Hex file formats (the latter with optional STMicroelectronics assembler DSD and SYM format). It reads debug information from output files produced by the original STMicroelectronics cross-assembler, and downloads program via RS-232 serial port to the program memory in less than 4 seconds (with 9600 serial baud rate and 4 KB of program size).
DS62X supports full emulation commands, offering an unlimited number of software breakpoints to stop the code execution of the microcontroller while running. A special user interface function, I/O Test, allows designers to manipulate the emulated processor I/Os to test the full functionality of their external hardware without writing special software routines. It is possible to set the outputs, read the inputs and change the directions of the I/O graphically.
