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ECCM KEY FEATURES

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ECCM stands for Embedded Controller Code Maker.

ECCM is a software design program that provides a development environment for Embedded Controller Design.

ECCM outputs an Assembler code to be burned on a Microchip.

The Engineer/Programmer, however, is not required to write a single line of Code .

What differentiate ECCM from other Code-Generation-Tools are the following 4 unique features:

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[1] The ECCM tools are not only code generation tools, but also learning tools.

Therefore, entry-level engineers or programmers (and even undergraduates) can use ECCM in order to

design and develop a software-hardware project.

That doesn’t mean that an experienced engineer or programmer can't use ECCM .

On the contrary, by using ECCM, even an experienced designer can reduce the development time of

the entire software-hardware project  typically by a factor of 4 ... meaning from months to weeks .

All the ECCM Tools provide an interactive ( Step-By-Step) guide to the designer , throughout the entire

design process of the software and the interface hardware .

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[2] ECCM provides 3 unique Software/Hardware Design and Development tools

Design Tool 1 : …. named ECCM Modules …

An Interactive-Tool, that allows a designer (entry level-engineer/programmer)

to create (automatically , by a click on a button located inside a spread-sheet),

the code for Software-Integrated-Modules (SIMs).

….. ( Conceptually a SIM is similar to a Hardware-Integrated-Circuit ) …

That tool “asks the designer questions” and according to the user answers

creates the final code of a certain SIM .

ECCM provides a family of SIMs for numerous software

and hardware applications .

Design Tool 2 : ... named ECCM Integrator ...

A software integration Tool , that allows a designer to Automatically Integrate the

code of all his SIMs  and create the System’s code . The only information

that the designer needs to provide ECCM-Integrator is the interconnection list

(named WIRE_LIST) between the SIM's . The WIRE_LIST is a 2 column table

that define the connections between the output-ports and  the input ports

of the SIM's.

Design Tool 3 ... named ECCM's Digital-Filter-Design-Tool ...

This tool is used for the implementation of Digital-Filters. Allows the designer to

specify the performance of Digital-Filter  and accordingly obtain the

Filter-Coefficient-Values. These Filter-Coefficient-Values are provided to

existing  SIMS that automatically create the code for  the Digital-Filters.

[3] The unique concept of a Software/Hardware Integrated Module ... the SIM ....

When using the ECCM Tools, the designer defines the software and the interface hardware by using

building blocks named  Software-Integrated-Modules or SIMs.

The key feature of each SIM are :

[] Each SIM, has a visual representation (the Block-Diagram) with specific predefined Input and Output (I/O) ports,

representing both software and hardware (if applicable) , providing  the means to Automatically integrate the

code of all the SIMs .

Also, the designer can use the block-diagram of the SIMs in order to draw a visual representation of the system,

including hardware and software.

….   The Meaning of hardware (I/O) ports (if applicable):

Each SIM that is fed via one (or more) hardware pin(s) of the EC chip,

( such as Digital I/O, Analog I/O , Clock I/O , etc )

or each SIM that feeds a voltage ( or current) to one ( or more) hardware pin(s) of the EC chip ,

has a combined block-diagram representing both the hardware and the software ports .

This combined Software/Hardware representation provide the Designer visual means representing

the software, as well as all the interfacing hardware ( in one schematic diagram ) .

[] For each SIM, ECCM provides the designer, with an "Active-Data-Sheet" ( a Spread-Sheet File) , that contains :

--  Interactive-Data-Entry means, in a form of questions to the Designer, resulting in "Designer-Answers".

-- Activation buttons that activate High-Level-Code that extract the "Designer-Answers" and

converts them into Assembler-Code that is ready to be used by the EC Chip .

-- Display of the resulting Assembler-Code.

-- Technical information about the SIM  (Software and Hardware), including the functionality of each

input port, output port, and the relationship between them .

-- Application-Example(s) illustrating how to use that SIM in a Software/Hardware project .

-- All the means needed, in order to allow the ECCM-Integrator tool, to Automatically integrate the

resulting Assembler-Code of that SIM , with the Assembler-Code of the other SIMs.

Note about the resulting Assembler-Code :

The designer is not required to understand the resulting Assembler-Code .

Nevertheless, the resulting Assembler-Code contains Comments that allow the designer to understand each line

, and provide cross-reference to the "Designer-Answers" .

[4] A new approach to using "High-Level-Language" in order to create Assembler code for Embedded-Controllers:

As of today, most of the high-level Software-Development tools (capable of generating software algorithms for

Embedded-Controllers), provide C language compilers.

These C compilers require significant on-chip-memory-space (typically unavailable).

--    The Code generated by the C compiler, does not provide visualization of the Software Hardware System.

--    Most importantly, Embedded-Controllers ( EC’s)  incorporate many on-chip hardware

( such as timers, pulse capture and generate,  AD, DA…) that has to be controlled by Assembler-Code.

Therefore, the  resulting code (that is used by Simulators / Emulators) is a mixture of  C and Assembler that is

obscure and difficult to manage.

The ECCM’s Solution: Algorithm-Generation SIMs

--   These SIMs, have well defined software I/O Ports (easy to visualize and simple to integrate with other SIMs)

allowing the designer to create complex Algorithms by using a

simplified Interactive-Basic-Language code generation technique.

--   The data sheet of The Algorithm-Generator SIMs contains additional active forms. These forms allow The designer to

generate advanced Assembler-Code by decoding the designer entry ( or user entry)    ... no need to write code ! ...

--    The user is only required to click on "Code-Templates" , where the code template are provided by

the design tool and  are written in a Basic-Language-like syntax (Basic-Like).

So, Unlike C compilers, when creating Algorithm-Generation SIMs, the Design-tool ECCM-modules,

assists the user in writing the “Basic-Like” code .

--    These "Code-Templates" are located in the Data-Sheet of the SIM and are automatically Provided to the user

(double-click on a certain instruction).

--    These "Code-Templates" contain all the Syntax and all the Parameters associated with Each Instructions, thus preventing syntax errors .

--    To  CONVERT The Basic-Like Code into Assembler-Code all The user needs to do is click on The Generate-Button located in

the Data-Sheet of the SIM.

--    Unlike C compilers , when converting the Basic-Like code into Assembler-code, the Design Tool (ECCM-modules) Automatically include only

the Functions and the Code that is needed, resulting in minimal use of the chip’s memory.

--    When ECCM-modules CONVERT The Basic-Like Code into Assembler Code, it adds Comments next to The Assembler lines.

These comments explain the code and provides cross-reference between the Assembler-Code and the Basic-Like code.

--    Finally , the resulting Assembler-code (of the Algorithm-Generator) is created by ECCM such that it can be Automatically integrated

( by the ECCM-Integrator-Tool) with the Assembler code of other SIMs .

All that is required from the Designer , is to specify (by providing the WIRE_LIST ) the interconnections between

the I/O of the Algorithm-Generator SIM, and the I/O of the other SIMs .

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design with the ECCM's Tools , please click on this picture  >>>>

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