ST72F324: assembler limitations

[roberto239955]

Posted on February 27, 2003 at 12:26

ST72F324: assembler limitations

[roberto239955]

Posted on February 24, 2003 at 05:44

Our customer is developing a new assembler code with ST72F324.

During emulation phase, after a number of SW step they we found a problem with source window. It seems that the source code is not aligned with the real position of the stack. No problems with disassembly window which remains alligned. We're using the Visual Debugger 2.5.1. After several trials we discover that the problem appears when the size of at least one assembler block is greater that 8K. Do you have any infos about it? Are there any limitations in code block size? Thank you very much for the support Fiorenz

[shreya]

Posted on February 24, 2003 at 10:52

Hello,

The limitation is only in STVD7. Upto 10,000 lines of code everything will be as expected. After that, user will not be able to set a breakpoint in the source file or see program execution status. Only the disassembly window will show the current status of program counter and allows user to set breakpoints.

[roberto239955]

Posted on February 25, 2003 at 06:13

hello,

thanks a lot for the info, do you know if it's written somewhere in a wathever documentation? Is it planned any improvements? thanks a lot F.

[erik_nelson]

Posted on February 27, 2003 at 12:26

I have written large projects in assembly for this part. All I can say is... GOOD LUCK keeping the code aligned in the debugger!!! My code quickly reached a point that the debugger simply does not appear to be capable of handling it. Much of the code is aligned, but much is not. Also, note there is a 10,000 line limitation for each module in the debugger.

One trick that helped tremendously was to throw a segment directive in front of a block of code that I wanted to step through. Typically this would magically caused the debugger to align to the code. I speak in past tense here because my code base has grown to the point that this trick does not always work any more. The good news here is that the code always assembles, links, and executes correctly. It is just the debugger that seems to have a problem with it. I REALLY wish that ST would address the debugger code alignment issue!!!