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CAMBRIDGE, UK, August 28, 2008, - Crossware (www.crossware.com), a leading embedded software tools developer, has enhanced its ARM® Development Suite by adding support for the graphics peripherals of the Atmel AT91SAM9263 ARM-based microcontroller. The enhancements will allow developers using this chip to get programs up and running even more quickly and thereby speed up the whole development process.

The Atmel AT91SAM9263 chip, based upon the ARM926EJ-S processor core, features a wide range of on-chip peripherals including an LCD controller and a 2D graphics accelerator. It also features a 9-layer bus matrix which, in conjunction with dual external bus interfaces and suitably arranged memories, enables direct memory access (DMA) from the LCD controller to the graphics memory to take place without disturbing program execution.

To support these features, Crossware has developed additional GUI Code Creation Wizards for the LCD controller, the 2D graphics accelerator and the bus matrix. These three additional Wizards allow all of the graphics display features of the AT91SAM9263 to be completely configured without the need for any code to be manually written. Outline interrupt handlers for the LCD controller and the 2D graphics accelerator can be automatically generated too.

Crossware has verified these Wizards by generating example programs that run on Atmel’s AT91SAM9263-EK evaluation board. These example programs are supplied with Crossware’s ARM Development Suite allowing developers to immediately start using the graphics display features on this board.

Crossware has also built and tested FreeType, a software font engine, which is able to output high-quality images from vector fonts such as TrueType and Type 1 fonts. An example program is supplied which illustrates how to rasterize vector fonts and display them on the 320 by 240 pixel color TFT display fitted to the AT91SAM9263-EK evaluation board. Developers can therefore immediately start displaying high quality customised text using this hardware platform.

The example programs can be rapidly downloaded to the target board using Crossware’s Jaguar USB JTAG interface, with the code being programmed into either NOR flash (if fitted) or into SDRAM.

The enhanced ARM Development Suite, with its advanced C/C++ compiler, libraries, wizards, simulator and debugger, provides a complete and extremely user friendly development environment for the Atmel ARM9 family of microcontrollers as well as ARM7 microcontrollers from Atmel, NXP and STMicroelectronics.