                    README for avrmon-stk200-0.6.0

     Homepage:       http://www.pvv.ntnu.no/~torhr/avrmon-stk200
     Email address:  torhr@pvv.ntnu.no


General information
-------------------

"avrmon-stk200" is a Linux debug monitor system for Atmel AVR micro-
controllers. It is compatible with the connection scheme used in
Atmels "STK200 Starter Kit", meaning that you can use the STK200 ISP
dongle both for programming the AVR (e.g. with Uros Platise's "uisp")
and for doing in-systems debugging. It is also compatible with
avr-gdb, allowing the use of gdb for source level debugging, together
with your favorite gdb frontend.

The monitor was originally written by Denis Chertykov (who also
pioneered the work on the binutils, gcc and gdb ports for AVR), and
the major part of his work is still intact. My work has been to
rewrite the low-level communication routines to be able to use the
STK200 connection scheme instead of the original "DAPA" (Alex's Direct
Avr Parallel Access) scheme.

Requirements
------------

This is the platform I used for building avrmon-stk200-0.6.0. The
versions mentioned are certainly not the only versions that will work,
nor are they minimum requirements.

  o GNU binutils (configured for AVR)
    binutils-2.11.2.tar.gz
    http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/binutils.html

  o GNU Compiler Collection (configured for AVR)
    gcc-3.0.1
    http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html

  o Standard C library for AVR:
    avr-libc-20010821
    http://www.amelek.gda.pl/avr/libc/

Although it is fully possible to use the monitor system in a
standalone fashion, it is really much more useful together with gdb:

  o Gnu debugger for AVR:
    gdb-4.18 + gdb-4.18-avr-patch-0.0 
    http://home.overta.ru/users/denisc 

Memory footprint
----------------

The target part of the monitor currently needs 530 bytes of program
memory (flash) and 64 bytes of data memory (sram). This is probably
acceptable with the larger parts, like the 8515. However, with smaller
parts, like the 2313 or the 2323, the monitor consumes a significant
part of the available memory. One viable solution to this problem may
be to develop the application on a larger device, and move the code to
a smaller device once it's past the heaviest debugging phase.

Documentation
-------------

Not much documentation about the usage of the monitor system exists
yet. Denis' original "quick description" is included in the following
file:

  doc/README.quick_desc.txt

History
-------

0.5.0  First public release.

0.6.0  A much needed platform upgrade, bringing avrmon-stk200 into the
       gcc-3.0 era. A lot of small changes and the fixing of one major
       bug that kept the monitor from working on newer versions of
       avr-libc.


Have fun.

Tor Ringstad
<torhr@pvv.ntnu.no>
Norway, 30 Aug, 2001
