In March 2023, NXP announced our vision for providing the leading development experience to developers using our general-purpose
microcontrollers (MCUs), and the technologies we planned to introduce in order to deliver this experience. Today, we are rolling
out the production version of a number of these technologies as part of our July 2023 release update of the MCUXpresso suite of
software and tools.
MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code Is Available Now
After a highly successful beta program involving hundreds of volunteer users from inside and outside the company, NXP has now
released
MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code (VS Code), available for download from the
Microsoft Visual Studio Marketplace . The extension provides full support for our MCUXpresso software drivers and middleware, enabling developers to use this
highly popular IDE for fast and responsive coding using MCUXpresso SDK. The extension is complemented by the easy-to-use
MCUXpresso Installer, which manages the installation of all the other components needed, such as Python, toolchains and debug
probe drivers.
A video explanation of MCUXpresso for Visual Studio Code
Thanks to all the great feedback from those beta testers and partners, we have also been able to refine the experience of
Zephyr developers, giving a friendlier environment
than was available before and making this powerful open source ecosystem more accessible to those looking to start exploring its
capabilities.
“It has been an honor to collaborate with NXP on the MCUXpresso extension,” said Mark Goodner, Principle Product Manager at
Microsoft. “The NXP team worked closely with Microsoft to leverage the embedded capabilities in Visual Studio Code. We are
impressed by NXP’s intuitive wizards enabling developers to use either the NXP or Zephyr SDK.”
Open-CMSIS-Packs Enable Easier Access to Partner Software
A major aspect of our developer experience improvement plans has been to assist engineers who are looking to use off-the-shelf
middleware libraries that can provide advanced features to rapidly address the growing complexity of MCU design and application
requirements. Working with our partners and in close collaboration with Arm®, we now have support in place for
Open-CMSIS-Packs, enabling third-party
software to be easily incorporated into projects in a predictable, standardized way.
Lead partners offering Open-CMSIS-Packs with support for NXP products provide access to many different technologies, including
graphics offerings from Ametek Crank, Embedded Wizard (from TARA) and LVGL, CAN and CAN-FD stacks from Embedded Systems Academy,
remote device management and diagnostics from Memfault, embOS RTOS from SEGGER and secure stacks from WolfSSL. In addition to
these, several other partners are actively working on packs that they plan to deliver later this year.
Discover more about Open-CMSIS-Packs from our partners below.
Ametek Crank
“At Ametek Crank, our mission is to simplify and
enhance the user interface development process, enabling designers and developers to work together to create exceptional user
experiences. We are thrilled to be collaborating with NXP to incorporate our CMSIS Packs into their tool, to provide customers
with an easy and efficient ecosystem of unlocking new possibilities for UI development across NXP hardware platforms".
Martin Jomphe, Managing Director at Crank
By leveraging the standardized components and middleware offered by CMSIS Packs, Crank’s CMSIS packs will package up a range of
ready-to-flash demo images enabling customers to efficiently evaluate the graphical performance of NXP microcontrollers.
Embedded Wizard
“As one of the leading providers of GUI software,
Embedded Wizard has been offering CMSIS Packs
since 2017. This extensive experience enables us to provide a high-quality solution tailored to the specific requirements of
NXP MCUs. Developers can rely on the proven features and stability, allowing them to fully focus on developing their
applications".
Manuel Melic, Product Manager and Managing Director at Embedded Wizard
Another significant advantage is the seamless portability of code across different NXP MCU platforms, without the need for
fundamental code adaptations. This saves valuable time and resources when migrating projects to new hardware platforms and
allows for flexible selection of the optimal MCU for each specific application. Our expertise ensures a reliable software
solution that offers regular updates and comprehensive support to assist throughout the entire product lifecycle.
Embedded Systems Academy (EmSA)
"We are excited to bring our Micro CANopen libraries to the Open-CMSIS-Pack ecosystem. We aim to empower developers to
effortlessly integrate CANopen or CANopen FD support into their embedded projects".
Olaf Pfeiffer, CEO of Embedded Systems Academy
NXP’s own development teams are also introducing packs throughout the second half of the year, including sensor processing and
analog front end support libraries. Available packs are registered in a central database managed by Arm, and so developers can
browse what options they have to choose from at any time, including new packs as they become available, without having to
install a new IDE version or visit individual software provider web sites.
Memfault
Memfault is thrilled to make easy and straightforward the
inclusion of the Memfault SDK in the NXP MCUXpresso development environment. We've done this by leveraging CMSIS Packs, an
abstraction standard championed by Arm, so supported across the industry. Making updates and maintenance simple is perfectly
aligned with Memfault's philosophy of bringing modern, reusable tooling to embedded computing".
James Pace, VP of Strategic Initiatives
Open-CMSIS-Packs for MCU Software Delivery
MCUXpresso Maximizes NXP’s Microcontroller Potential
This July’s release marks the first step on the road to the future of the microcontroller development experience with NXP. We
are excited about the new
MCUXpresso for VS Code, especially
given the huge response to our call for beta testers, and to be able to offer a significant upgrade in experience for Zephyr
developers, but more is to come as we further enhance this environment. With our platinum IDE partners, IAR and Arm, fully
supporting Open-CMSIS-Packs and also providing their own VS Code extensions, the power of choice for IDEs is broader than ever.
Complementing those new IDE capabilities, our software partners are also committed to Open-CMSIS-Packs, and the list of
available options is growing strongly. Visit
MCUXpresso
for more details.
