Altium has announced the release of a major update to their TASKING compiler for TriCore/AURIX microcontrollers which power advanced automotive applications. This new release supports the next generation of Infineon TriCore technologies and enables engineers to begin early development on advanced automotive applications before the new AURIX family line is released publicly. This update is now available to all TASKING customers on a maintenance contract and trial versions are available upon request.

“OEM’s and Tier-1 automotive providers require the highest standards in code reliability and safety without any compromises to performance,” said Franz Maidl, Managing Director of Global TASKING Business. “This update to our TriCore/AURIX toolset with support for the third generation of the Bosch GTM-IP, XC800 and the Hardware Security Module provides engineers all over the world the capabilities they need in their development tools to design sophisticated automotive applications without any sacrifice to quality.”

Enhancements for Advanced Automotive Applications

Recent advances in complex automotive systems including power train, power steering, chassis, and transmission control have called for new, advanced functionality within the tools that embedded software developers rely upon. To meet these unique needs, Altium worked directly with OEM’s and Tier-1 automotive providers to develop new tools and enhancements to satisfy the engineering needs of future automotive applications. These new features and enhancements include:

• A new Integrity Check Tool. This tool enables developers with the focus on ISO 26262 ASIL specifications to easily check memory access with advanced safety requirements and greatly enhances application safety and reliability by analyzing code for possible access restriction violations. The partitioning of code and data into different safety groups will prevent interference between different ASIL levels, which is especially important for multi-core automotive applications.
• AURIX Configuration Tools (ACT) *. Altium and Infineon Technologies collaborated on the ACT as an extension of the TriCore toolset to include a pin mapper, the TASKING software platform for AURIX, as well as a royalty free RTOS.
  *) ACT is provided as complimentary Bonus Technology and supported to a limited level (please notice the term Bonus Technology is further described in our eula).
• Enhanced pin mapper tool for AURIX microcontrollers. This pin mapper solution supports the developer to assign the signals of the peripheral modules to physical pins of the chip and saves the developer from the tedious task of managing pin assignments in spreadsheets.
• Fully integrated development environment. This update marks a major milestone in the complete integration of the TriCore toolset with the BOSCH GTM-IP MCS timer module into one complete development environment unlike any other vendor can currently offer.

In addition to the new features above, a number of enhancements and fixes have been released to further optimize the TriCore/AURIX compiler. Programming for advanced microcontrollers has also been significantly simplified and developers can now quickly configure low level drivers, C files and header files as well as the RTOS through the graphical editor and code generator directly from the TASKING software platform.

With these new features and enhancements in place, developers are able to significantly decrease development time and costs while also generating the safest and most reliable code needed to meet the strict quality requirements from Tier-1 automotive providers.

Availability

This new version of the TASKING TriCore/AURIX compiler is available immediately in various product bundles. Current TASKING customers with a maintenance contract can request this new update now. A trial version is available as well.