If you are looking for alternate option for EmbSysRegView (embedded system register view) plugin or wondering ‘How to Add Register Details View in Eclipse” this post describes simple trick to it. The standard Eclipse registers view shows only the core registers, which is not enough in embedded system development. So, EmbSysRegView – is an open source solution for 8, 16 and 32 bit microcontroller to display special function registers (SFR) while debugging.

EmbSysRegView is a good plugin which supports GCC toolchain including GDB with Eclipse for emebedded system development, but it is not maintained and lacks support for new controllers. One can always refer to previous post we have seen how to add register details view in Eclipse for SAME54 series. However those steps can be used to add support for any other microcontrollers. This post describes about alternative to EmbSysRegView.

Eclipse provide peripherals view, this view shows details based on memory location meaning, you can monitor memory locations using this view. By default this view looks like as shown in this screenshot.

To make use of this view to show SFR and other registers we will use “SVD Path” option from “debug configurations” of eclipse. In Eclipse click on “Run”-> “Debug Configurations” and select “SVD path” tab. It is assumed that you have completed debug configurations.

Here you have to provide svd file path of your controller. In my case we are using SAME54 controller. The best place to get latest updated SVD file is from installation directory of the IDE. For 32bit Microchip controllers svd files can be found in following path – “C:/Program Files(x86)/Atmel/Studio/7.0/packs/atmel/SAME54_DFP/1.0.87/svd/ATSAME54P20A.svd”. Location “Atmel/Studio/7.0/packs/” have all svd file eg. SAM3A, SAM4C, SAMD, SAME, SAMG, SAMH, SAML, SAMR and SAMS controller series. Select the svd file as per your controller.

Once this is updated click on “debug” to start debugging. One can also provide variables instead of absolute path for .svd files. CMSIS-SVD – Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard – System View Description format- files provides consistent view to device and peripherals.
In debug mode stop at any breakpoints and you can view peripherals now. All the updates are marked in yellow.

Although EmbSysRegView provides good interface in eclipse there is always better to have alternate solution if one plugin is not working. With the Embedded Systems Register View and this peripherals view you have a gateway to inspect peripheral registers of device under debug. This is possible with open source software like eclipse, gdb, openocd and CMSIS-SVD files.