Recommend TI DSP emulator

Hi,
  I am setting up for development on TI 55x DSP and need advice/
recommendation on the various emulators that are available.  I am
getting Code Composer Studio 3.3.  I see that the TI web site list 510
and 560 class emulators.  I have used the XDS510 in the past but 560
is new to me.  How useful are the new features it is supposed to
provide?  Then, within each class, there are emulators from various
manufacturers TI, Spectrum Digital, Wintec, Blackhawk, GAO, FlexDS.
The price ranges from a few hundereds to 4000 for TI XDS560.  So, I am
not sure which one to get.  I am using a laptop, so I was considering
using a USB based device.  What are your experiences with USB vs
parallel port or PCMCIA interface?  TIA.

anemat01@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
>   I am setting up for development on TI 55x DSP and need advice/
> recommendation on the various emulators that are available.  I am
> getting Code Composer Studio 3.3.  I see that the TI web site list 510
> and 560 class emulators.  I have used the XDS510 in the past but 560
> is new to me.  How useful are the new features it is supposed to
> provide?  Then, within each class, there are emulators from various
> manufacturers TI, Spectrum Digital, Wintec, Blackhawk, GAO, FlexDS.
> The price ranges from a few hundereds to 4000 for TI XDS560.  So, I am
> not sure which one to get.  I am using a laptop, so I was considering
> using a USB based device.  What are your experiences with USB vs
> parallel port or PCMCIA interface?  TIA.
> 

I recommend you purchase an XDS510 emulator.  The additional features 
you gain from an XDS560 emulator are only available on some of the high 
end c6000 DSPs.

Specifically, I recommend the USB510 from Blackhawk.  It's small, 
bus-powered, durable, and most importantly it's fast!  I believe it 
costs in the neighborhood of $1700-$1800.

Brad

Brad Griffis <bradgriffis@hotmail.com> writes:

> anemat01@gmail.com wrote:
>> Hi,
>>   I am setting up for development on TI 55x DSP and need advice/
>> recommendation on the various emulators that are available.  I am
>> getting Code Composer Studio 3.3.  I see that the TI web site list 510
>> and 560 class emulators.  I have used the XDS510 in the past but 560
>> is new to me.  How useful are the new features it is supposed to
>> provide?  Then, within each class, there are emulators from various
>> manufacturers TI, Spectrum Digital, Wintec, Blackhawk, GAO, FlexDS.
>> The price ranges from a few hundereds to 4000 for TI XDS560.  So, I am
>> not sure which one to get.  I am using a laptop, so I was considering
>> using a USB based device.  What are your experiences with USB vs
>> parallel port or PCMCIA interface?  TIA.
>>
>
> I recommend you purchase an XDS510 emulator.  The additional features
> you gain from an XDS560 emulator are only available on some of the
> high end c6000 DSPs.

Hi Brad,

I thought the XDS560 had a significantly higher data transfer rate
between the host interface (e.g., USB) and the target, so that, e.g.,
program downloads were much quicker and more monitoring on the host
was feasible.

Is this not true?
-- 
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%% Fuquay-Varina, NC            %     but when I try to touch, she makes it
%%% 919-577-9882                %                            all too clear."
%%%% <yates@ieee.org>           %        'Yours Truly, 2095', *Time*, ELO  
http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr

Randy Yates wrote:
> Brad Griffis <bradgriffis@hotmail.com> writes:
> 
>> anemat01@gmail.com wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>   I am setting up for development on TI 55x DSP and need advice/
>>> recommendation on the various emulators that are available.  I am
>>> getting Code Composer Studio 3.3.  I see that the TI web site list 510
>>> and 560 class emulators.  I have used the XDS510 in the past but 560
>>> is new to me.  How useful are the new features it is supposed to
>>> provide?  Then, within each class, there are emulators from various
>>> manufacturers TI, Spectrum Digital, Wintec, Blackhawk, GAO, FlexDS.
>>> The price ranges from a few hundereds to 4000 for TI XDS560.  So, I am
>>> not sure which one to get.  I am using a laptop, so I was considering
>>> using a USB based device.  What are your experiences with USB vs
>>> parallel port or PCMCIA interface?  TIA.
>>>
>> I recommend you purchase an XDS510 emulator.  The additional features
>> you gain from an XDS560 emulator are only available on some of the
>> high end c6000 DSPs.
> 
> Hi Brad,
> 
> I thought the XDS560 had a significantly higher data transfer rate
> between the host interface (e.g., USB) and the target, so that, e.g.,
> program downloads were much quicker and more monitoring on the host
> was feasible.
> 
> Is this not true?

Randy,

That is partially true, but not the whole story.  That is, the 560 
emulators tend to be the fastest, but not necessarily by much.

The higher date rate comes primarily from an adaptive algorithm in the 
emulator to set the TCLK frequency.  The Spectrum Digital XDS510USB did 
not use this and so it would always run TCLK at about 10 MHz.  On the 
other hand the TI XDS560 emulator would adaptively figure out how fast 
it could run generally achieving speeds between 25-35 MHz.  Hence you'd 
get much faster downloads.  That same principle is used by both the 
Blackhawk (BH) USB510 and BH USB560 emulators.  This allows the BH 
USB510 to achieve download speeds close to that of a 560.

I did some rough benchmarking a couple years ago between a BH USB560, BH 
USB510, Spectrum Digital (SD) XDS510USB, and SD XDS510 PP+.  The results 
were that the BH USB560 was the best with the BH USB510 following 
closely behind.  The SD emulators lagged far behind with the XDS510USB 
being only a little bit faster than the PP+.  Since I did that testing 
SD has come out with a couple new emulators:  the XDS510USB PLUS and the 
XDS560R.  I've not tried out either of these.

Of course download speed is not the whole story, there is also the speed 
of single-stepping through code, etc. to be taken into account.  I never 
did any benchmarking of that.  From general experience though I have 
found the 560 emulators to be only a hair faster.

The place where an XDS560 emulator pays big dividends is with processors 
like the 6416 or 6455 which support high-speed real-time data exchange 
(HS-RTDX).  To get all this benefit you need the 60-pin JTAG header 
which it seems most people don't use anyway.  Those processors also 
support trace, though that requires a special $10,000 trace emulator.

So to summarize I'd say if you're looking for the best emulator period 
then I'd recommend a 560.  If you're looking for a good value that still 
has great performance then I'd recommend the BH USB510.

Brad

Brad Griffis <bradgriffis@hotmail.com> writes:
> [...]

Excellent information! Thanks much, Brad.

--Randy

-- 
%  Randy Yates                  % "...the answer lies within your soul
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC            %       'cause no one knows which side
%%% 919-577-9882                %                   the coin will fall."
%%%% <yates@ieee.org>           %  'Big Wheels', *Out of the Blue*, ELO
http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr