SEGGER’s Ozone debugger adds support for custom instructions

SEGGER’s Ozone debugger adds support for custom instructions

SEGGER just released Ozone V3.10, a major update to its full-featured graphical debugger and performance analyzer. The new release includes support for custom instructions, allowing disassembly of application specific instructions added to the CPU core to tailor it for the particular application. Custom instructions are defined in plug-in scripts, which can be easily edited by the user of Ozone or the CPU core designer. The software already comes with a plug-in script for the popular RISC-V PULP extension.

Custom instructions are used to make embedded systems more efficient. Tailoring instructions to a specific application increases speed and reduces power consumption. The use of customized instructions, now available for RISC-V and ARM, is becoming more widespread

The new release comes with other new features and enhancements as well, most notably a new unified timeline window. The unified timeline window now shows all time-related values in a single window, so that instruction trace, power consumption, and data values can be viewed at a glance, while at the same time reducing the amount of screen real estate being used. Having this information in the same timeline can reveal important system information, especially the correlation between power, data, and code execution.

Ozone works cross-platform for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Like most SEGGER software, Ozone can easily be downloaded and installed without a registration process. Ozone is available for free with a J-Link PLUS, PRO, ULTRA+, or with a J-Trace. Other J-Link models can use Ozone under the terms of SEGGER’s friendly licensing, allowing use for non-commercial purposes as well unlimited evaluation even for the commercial user.