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Eclipse and Embedded Systems
Eclipse tools and platforms have invaded the world of building software for noncomputer devices.
by Peter Varhol

March 30, 2007

Among the projects under active development for Eclipse are a number intended to serve the needs of developers of embedded systems. These projects include the foundation C/C++ Developer's Toolkit (CDT), the Device Software Development Platform (DSDP), the Embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP), Mobile Tools for Java (MTJ), Native Application Builder (NAB), and Target Management. All of these projects target a specific type of embedded application or enable developers to create and debug embedded applications.

A variety of vendors of embedded systems software and hardware have invested in Eclipse, often as a tools platform, and an increasing number of embedded development teams are moving to Eclipse on their own and demanding that their tools vendors support it. The eRCP lets embedded developers build entire applications using the Eclipse framework.

What is it about Eclipse that has placed it front and center in the diverse and highly fragmented embedded system development process? An easy explanation is that Eclipse provides a foundation for embedded products vendors, which are typically smaller companies focused on a particular area of expertise. Rather than expend resources to build an IDE or similar tools platform, they can use one that is already available and that other vendors were using with success.

However, there is more to it than that. Unlike a lot of enterprise development, most embedded development projects are individual, unique, and complex. Embedded developers tend to be technically proficient, highly productive, and willing and able to build or modify their own tools as necessary. This community remains one of the biggest users of the GNU development tools—GCC, GDB, GMP, and similar tools—and members are used to having access to both freely downloadable tools and the source code implementations of those tools.

There is both push and pull in embedded tools. Vendors find it a convenient way to offer up targeted tool sets in an integrated environment, while the highly technical development community is demanding the ability to customize their environment and even write their own plug-ins. This combination is resulting in an explosion of use for a variety of embedded projects.

What About Developers?
For most embedded developers, the benefits of Eclipse are evident and real:

• It's free and freely downloadable and available in open source to those who would like to make changes.
• It can be updated simply through downloading the latest version, up to and including nightly builds for the more adventurous.
• It runs on Java, which theoretically makes it accessible on a wide range of platforms. In reality, the platforms are really Microsoft Windows, Solaris, and Linux, which still make up an impressive collection of hosts.

Embedded interests have been represented in Eclipse since the very beginning. QNX Software Systems was one of the founding members of the Eclipse Foundation, and one of the board members until it was acquired by Harmon International in 2004. (Eclipse Foundation dues for strategic members is based on company size; because of the size of Harmon, the dues to remain a strategic member became much too high for the value returned. QNX remains an add-in provider member.)

Any tool that is implemented as an Eclipse plug-in can be installed easily in the environment. So QNX Momentics, which comes with compilers (C/C++ and Java), code coverage, debugging, performance analysis, and other tools, can be supplemented with, for example, the Klocwork static-analysis tools, simply by placing them in the appropriate directory on the development machine.