March 26, 2001 - SofTec Microsystems announces the availability of the inDART-ST7 series of in-circuit debuggers and programmers for the STMicroelectronics ST7 family of devices. Supported devices currently include ST72CXXX devices; support for ST72FXXX and ST7LITEX devices will be added shortly.

inDART-ST7 Series In-Circuit Debuggers take advantage of STMicroelectronics' STVD7 (STMicroelectronics Visual Debug) Integrated Development Environment and the ISP (In Situ Programming) feature to program the FLASH memory of the ST7 family of microcontrollers. Together with STVD7, inDART-ST7 Series In-Circuit Debuggers provides users with everything they need to write, compile, download, in-circuit emulate and debug user code. Full speed program execution allows users to perform hardware and software testing in real time. inDART-ST7 Series In-Circuit Debuggers are connected to the host PC through a parallel port, while the 10-pin probe of the debuggers fit into the target's standard ISP connector.

The ISP feature allows users to update the content of FLASH program memory when the chip is already plugged on the application board. ISP programming uses a serial protocol to interface a programming tool like inDART. The ISP feature can be implemented with a minimum number of added components and board area impact. inDART-ST7 Series In-Circuit Debuggers use the standard, 10-pin ST7 ISP connector to program and in-circuit emulate the target device.

The inDART-ST7 user interface (common for all of the inDART-ST7 Series In-Circuit Debuggers) is based on the ST7 Visual Debug Integrated Development Environment (STVD7). STVD7 enables programs to be executed and stopped where desired, while viewing the memory contents. It offers the ability to step through and examine code at the C source level and the Assembly instruction level. Users can introduce breakpoints and run or single-step the executable, while viewing the source and observing current program values. All registers and memory locations are accessible for both read and write operations.

The tools are available as standalone debuggers/programmers (EUR 99--they require a working user application board) or in Design Kits packages (EUR 199--which include a full-featured experiment board for a specific ST7 microcontroller). Each demo board includes DIP-switches, jumpers, LEDs, push-buttons, a potentiometer, prototyping area and a standard ISP connector and can be used for evaluation/experiments in the absence of a target application board.