MPLAB Harmony 2.0, the fully featured firmware development framework for PIC32 microcontrollers, is now available as a free download from Microchip Technology Inc. The significant update to the award-winning software platform enables customers to create smaller and more efficient code equaling faster and more cost-effective devices. In addition to better quality code, the update has added numerous new tools that work within the MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
MPLAB Harmony is a free software framework and tool suite within Microchip’s MPLAB X IDE and also works with MPLAB XC32 compilers. The MPLAB Harmony framework operates with PIC32 solutions and offers libraries of peripherals, drivers and system services to support application development. The software also contains board support packages for PIC32 development boards.
One of the many upgrades in Harmony 2.0 is new and enhanced tools to support the easy creation of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) including a new Graphics Composer Suite. The enhanced Graphics Composure Suite adds tools for graphic asset utilisation management, image transformation including format conversion, compression and editing, a revised What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) engine for more accurate design-to-production GUI representation and a new Display Manager for easy adoption of non-standard displays.
MPLAB Harmony 2.0 also adds to the existing peripheral code library and upgrades the offering to comply with MISRA-C: 2012 Mandatory Standards. Updates to the software framework also include additional tools and support such as a Board Support Package (BSP) Manager, stand-alone project exporting and an updated pin manager. All of these updates are designed to drive shorter design times, lower total cost of development and increase profits.
“Studies have shown that a software development ecosystem is at least three times more important to our customers than any other aspect in their choice of MCU to implement an embedded design,” said Rod Drake, vice president of Microchip’s MCU32 division. “We’ve gathered feedback from our customers and put an immense amount of effort into making our MPLAB Harmony software framework better, faster, more efficient and more useful for developers. We know our customers will be extremely pleased with this latest update and we’ll continue to look for ways to exceed expectations.”
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