Release Notes for Arm Development Studio 2023.1 - Date: November 13, 2023


Processor and Architecture Support
Support for the following processors is added:

- Cortex-A520
- Cortex-A720
- Cortex-X4

Support for the following architectures and extensions is added:

- Guarded Control Stack (GCS)

Arm Compiler for Embedded
The Arm Compiler in this release of Arm Development Studio is updated to Arm Compiler for Embedded 6.21.
Arm Compiler 5 is now a legacy product and has reached the end of Mainstream Support. It is no longer provided in Arm Development Studio. Arm Compiler 5 can still be used for existing projects and for new projects for legacy Armv4, Armv5, or Armv6 targets - you can download it from the Legacy Arm Compiler Downloads page, then add it as a toolchain into Arm Development Studio. For all other new projects, Arm recommends using Arm Compiler for Embedded 6 for non-safety projects and Arm Compiler for Embedded FuSa (Functional Safety) for safety projects.

Arm Debugger
The Arm Debugger includes the following new features and enhancements:

- Support for Cortex-A520, Cortex-A720 and Cortex-X4 processors.
- Support for the Guarded Control Stack (GCS) architecture extension, including new print gcs and info gcs commands.
- The default DWARF parser for debug information is now the LLVM parser, which supports DWARF5. You can revert back to the legacy parser (which does not support DWARF5) in the graphical debugger if required by using Window > Preferences > Arm DS > Debugger > Dwarf Parser, then clearing the Use LLVM Dwarf parser checkbox. For existing workspaces created with previous versions of Arm Development Studio, if the Dwarf Parser setting had been explicitly set or cleared, then that setting will be respected. To revert back to the legacy parser in the command-line debugger armdbg, use -use-legacy-parser (or -lp). GCC version 11 and later generates DWARF5 by default. Arm Compiler for Embedded 6 can also generate DWARF5 (use -gdwarf-5), but you must use version 6.21 (as supplied in this release of Arm Development Studio) or later.
- To help readability of long values held in registers, values can now be viewed in the Registers view and on the command-line split into smaller groups by separator characters. For example 0x123456789ABCDEF0 can be displayed as 0x1234_5678_9ABC_DEF0.
- Options have been added to the armdbg command line debugger to facilitate the usage of CMSIS packs. Also commands (-connect-hold-reset and -connect-pre-reset) to control reset pulses emitted from DSTREAM when connecting to target hardware. See the Arm Development Studio documentation for full details.
- Support for Embedded Logic Analyzer (ELA) in Snaphot Viewer.

Support for the CADI interface to FVPs in Arm Debugger is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

Arm Fixed Virtual Platforms
The Arm FVPs in this release of Arm Development Studio are updated to a selection from Fast Models 11.23.

FVP_Base_Cortex-A520, FVP_Base_Cortex-A720 and FVP_Base_Cortex-X4 models are added.

Arm Streamline
Arm Streamline in this release of Arm Development Studio is updated to version 8.8.0.

Support for the Energy Probe with Streamline is now deprecated and may be removed in a future release.

Arm Graphics Analyzer
Arm Graphics Analyzer in this release of Arm Development Studio is version 5.12.2.

Examples

Additions include:
- A bare-metal example demonstrating the support for the Guarded Control Stack (GCS) extension, in Arm Compiler for Embedded 6, the AEMvA FVP model and the Debugger.
- Bare-metal examples for Cortex-A520 and Cortex-A720.
- Bare-metal graphical "train" examples for the M-class MPS2 platform, for both Arm Compiler for Embedded 6 and GCC.
- Simple bare-metal C++ examples for Armv8-A, for both Arm Compiler for Embedded 6 and GCC.

Supported Host Platforms
This release adds support for Microsoft Windows 11 and Ubuntu Desktop Edition 22.04 LTS. Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

Known issues in this release
- Arm Debugger : Split DWARF is not supported for DWARF 5.
- Arm Debugger : Linux kernel debug with OS awareness is not supported for AArch32 Linux kernel version 5.15 or later.
- Arm Debugger : Built-in support for Cadence Virtual Debug as a connectable probe option has been removed. Users of Cadence Virtual Debug must contact their EDA partner or Cadence directly to obtain the latest version of the plugin.
- Arm Debugger : It is the user's responsibility to install Windows drivers for the Olimex ARM-USB FTDI/JTAG devices. Following the advice from the manufacturer, the drivers can be downloaded from:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/ARM/JTAG/_resources/OLIMEX-FTDI-drivers-2-12-04.zip

.
- Arm Debugger : When connected to Cortex-R82 hardware via a debug probe, the 'info memory' command shows an 'NP' address space, but addresses in that space are not accessible.

Arm Development Studiois a professional software development solution for bare-metal embedded systems and Linux-based systems. Arm Development Studio supports all types of software development projects from architecture exploration to the development of real-time applications and coding for edge devices. It accelerates system design and software development enabling you to get higher quality products to market faster and cost-effectively.

Getting started with ARM Cortex-M software development and Arm Development Studio

Arm provides a unified software toolchain for frictionless and fast developer experience. Watch this video to learn how to get started today to port optimized ML code for the Arm microcontrollers. In this session, we will cover:
- How to develop and debug your software with Arm Development Studio
- How to get started with MCU software development on Arm Fast Model Systems
- How to build and deploy an ML application with TensorFlow Lite and CMSIS-NN kernels to a Cortex-M7 device
- How to migrate your ML code to Arm Cortex-M55, Arm's most AI-capable Cortex-M processor.
Arm technologyis at the heart of a computing and data revolution that is transforming the way people live and businesses operate. Our energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms have enabled advanced computing in more than 200 billion chips and our technologies securely power products from the sensor to the smartphone and the supercomputer. Together with 1,000+ technology partners we are at the forefront of designing, securing and managing all areas of AI-enhanced connected compute from the chip to the cloud.