Nexus 5001 Forum expands membership

Four more companies, Texas Instruments Inc., NEC Electronics Corp., Analog Devices Inc. and Tensilica Inc., have joined the Nexus 5001 Forum, now a 22-company effort to address multi-processor debugging of embedded systems through the adoption of the Nexus standard.

The Nexus standard (IEEE-ISTO Nexus 5001) is an embedded processor development tool interface that helps design engineers rapidly identify software- and hardware-level problems in real time, the group said, adding that Nexus is the only open debugging standard. By using a standard debug protocol available from multiple chip makers, companies can reduce time and expense when migrating between architectures, according to the Nexus 5001 Forum.

"The ability to have real-time visibility and control of multiple embedded processor cores is only one area that the Nexus Forum has been striving for since its beginning," said Ron Stence, leader of Nexus 5001 Forum and a senior systems engineer at Freescale Semiconductor Inc.

According to the group, Nexus allows for re-use of development tools and directly supports multicore embedded processors. Use of the standard enables engineers and programmers to find and fix problems with their systems using emulators, debuggers, logic analysers, hardware-in-the-loop and workstations to control embedded processors in real time, according to Nexus 5001 Forum.

Standardisation also ensures that microprocessor systems can re-use diagnostic equipment across multiple architectures and design cycles, the organisation said.

- Dylan McGrath
  EE Times