Accessing arm cortex M3 processor inside FPGA using xilinx JTAG

[keerthisagar.r]

Hi,

I have been trying to integrate Arm cortex M3 in my design on Xilinx FPGA (Kintex7 in specific). I am using "Arm Cortex-M3 DesignStart FPGA-Xilinx edition User Guide" as reference. I have some questions and doubts regarding software development and debugging.

1. From the example design and other resources, I have understood that only Keil uVision can be used for software development.
   
   1. Is this assumption correct ?
   2. If not, can Xilinx SDK be used for it ?
2. To debug or program the processor, the documentation seems to suggest that a separate JTAG needs to be connected exclusively for the processor.
   
   1. Is there a way to use the same jtag (xilinx jtag) for both cortex m3 processor and the rest of the FPGA (like using MDM with microblaze)?
   2. Is the method of access through Vivado tcl shell for the cortex m3 processor same as when the design uses microblaze or zynq processor (xmd/ xsdb)?

Basically I would like to know if I can use the microblaze and arm cortex m3 processors interchangeably in a design without much modification to the tool flow or any additional hardware.

References:

1. Arm Cortex-M3 DesignStart FPGA-Xilinx edition User Guide
   https://developer.arm.com/documentation/101483/0000/
2. Connecting the Debug Probes
   https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/boards/arm/arty/doc/index.html#connecting-the-debug-probes

Thanks in advance
-Keerthi

[vanmierlo]

Ad 1.a) I see no reason why you cannot use GCC for Arm Cortex devices. Or IAR or any other compiler.

https://developer.arm.com/tools-and-software/open-source-software/developer-tools/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm 

You can use many IDE's on top, like e.g. eclipse.

For the debug connection OpenOCD seems an option.

[keerthisagar.r]

I would like to keep the tool flow as close to the Xilinx design tools as possible, so is there a way to adjust the settings of Xilinx SDK and use it for software development ? (since SDK is based on eclipse).