Introduction to the

Mbed Platform and

CMSIS
Syllabus
This module will cover the following

• Mbed Overview
• Mbed OS
• Mbed Software Development Kit (SDK)
• Mbed Hardware Development Kit (HDK)
• Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS)

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Introduction to Mbed

What is Mbed? The Mbed platform provides: The Mbed platform includes:
A platform used for the easy Open software libraries Mbed Operating System (Mbed OS)
prototyping and development of Open hardware designs – Libraries, RTOS core, HAL, API,
applications and systems based on and more
Open online tools for professional
Arm Cortex-M-based A microcontroller Hardware
rapid prototyping of products based
microcontrollers, typically used in Development Kit (HDK) and
on Arm-based microcontrollers
the world of IoT supported development boards
Integrated Development
Environment (IDE), including an
online compiler and online
developer collaboration tools

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Mbed OS
Overview
Cortex-M
• Open-source operating system for platforms RTOS Kernel

using Arm microcontrollers (IoT)

Development Portable
• Offers a variety of features to enable the Tools Drivers

development of IoT connected systems

• Layer of abstraction interprets application code

Mbed
for hardware to understand OS
Management Integrated
• Developers can focus on programming portable Services Security

applications
• An Mbed OS application can be run on any Mbed-
compatible platform IoT
Connectivity

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Mbed OS
Cortex-M RTOS kernel

• Mbed has an RTOS core

• Supports deterministic, multi-threaded, real-time software execution
Cortex-M
• RTOS primitives are available to allow drivers and applications to RTOS Kernel
rely on threads, semaphores, mutexes, and other RTOS features

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Mbed OS
Security

• Two security-focused building blocks:

• Arm Mbed TLS
• Secure Partition Manager (SPM)

• Mbed TLS is a protocol for securing communication channels

between devices and servers or gateways Integrated
Security

• The SPM is responsible for:

• Isolating software within partitions
• Managing the execution of software within partitions
• Providing Inter-Process Communication (IPC) between partitions

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Mbed OS
IoT Connectivity

• Mbed OS supports a number of connectivity protocols

• Paired with Pelion Device Management to provide full support for a range
of communication options

• Such technologies include:

• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) IoT
Connectivity
• Wi-Fi
• Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT)
• 6LoWPAN
• Thread
• Ethernet

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Mbed OS
Development tools

• Arm Mbed Online Compiler

• Circumvents need for dedicated desktop setup
• Allows writing code from scratch or import existing projects
• Arm Mbed CLI
• Python-based command line tool, specifically for Mbed OS 5
• Compiler versions supported: Arm compiler, GNU Arm Embedded, IAR Development
Tools
Embedded workbench
• Arm Mbed Studio
• Desktop IDE for quick development, debug and deployment cycle
• All can fetch the Mbed OS source code from GitHub/mbed.com,
along with dependencies, and compile code for a target board

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Mbed Online Compiler
Lightweight online C/C++ IDE

• Enables quick program writing, compilation, and

execution on a microcontroller

• No prior-installation or set-up required to work

with Mbed

• Includes full code editor, version control, and

library management

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Mbed CLI
Command-line tool packaged as “mbed-cli” and based on Python

• Solves dependency management and

code publishing

• Support for remotely hosted repositories

• Git and Mercurial-based version control

• Use of the Arm Mbed OS build system

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Mbed Studio
Integrated development environment (IDE) for Mbed OS 5 applications
• Includes everything required to create,
compile, and debug Mbed programs

• Automatically detects connected Mbed-

enabled boards
• Quick development for specific targets

• Flashes code directly to connected platform

• Provides debug session for debugging and

profiling the target board

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Mbed Software Development Kit (SDK)

C/C++ microcontroller software platform, licensed under Apache 2.0 license

Mbed SDK includes:

• Official C/C++ software libraries
• Start-up code, peripheral drivers, networking, RTOS, and runtime environment
• Community-developed libraries and code
• Cookbook of hundreds of reusable peripheral and module libraries built on top of the SDK
• Software tools, such as build tools, test, and debug scripts

Enables rapid prototyping of embedded applications

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Mbed Hardware Development Kit (HDK)
Collection of designs to help develop custom hardware
• Working with boards based on the Mbed HDK Example
allows using Mbed ecosystem and associated
technologies, including Mbed OS and DAPLink • Microcontroller sub-system used to build an
evaluation board

• The HDK offers:

• Eagle schematics and board files
• PDF schematics and board copies
• CAM Job GERBERS for manufacture (including
pick/place and drill)
• Bill of Materials (BOM)
• A repository of content and projects

• Easy-to-use USB and debugging support

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DAPLink
Open-source project implementing embedded firmware required for a Cortex debug probe

Human Interface Device (HID) USB drag and drop programming USB serial port

Provides a channel over which The DAPLink debug probes appear DAPLink probe also provides a USB
CMSIS-DAP protocols can run as USB disks on host computers serial port
• Enables tools such as Keil MDK, Binary and hex files can be copied • Port will appear on a Windows PC
IAR Workbench, and pyOCD to the USB disk that are then as a COM port or in Linux as a
programmed into the memory of /dev/tty interface
the target system

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Testing with Mbed
The Mbed platform offers several tools that support testing of Mbed code​

Greentea​
• Automated testing tool for Arm Mbed OS development​
• Pair with “UNITY” and “utest” frameworks​
• https://os.mbed.com/docs/mbed-os/v5.15/tools/greentea-testing-applications.html​

Icetea​
• Automated testing tool for Arm Mbed OS development​
• Typically used for local development and automation in a continuous integration environment​
• https://os.mbed.com/docs/mbed-os/v5.15/tools/icetea-testing-applications.html​

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Mbed enabled platforms
• The Arm® Mbed Enabled™ program outlines a set of functionality and requirements that must be met in order to
become “Mbed Enabled.” This can cover development boards, modules, components, and interfaces

• This benefits developers, as they are assured that the platforms they choose to work with can perform certain
functions/provide certain performance.

• It is also beneficial to vendors, as it gives their products more exposure when certified that can increase their
popularity with developers in the Mbed ecosystem.

• Some example boards include:

NUCLEO-F401RE NXP FRDM-K64F DISCO-F413ZH Nordic nRF52-DK

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High-level vs. low-level programming
High-level Low-level
• Advantages: • Advantages:
• Higher productivity (less development time) • More optimized code and higher memory
• Portability across devices efficiency
• Code is easier to read and maintain • Less translation time from source to
• Allows code reuse machine code
• Rapid prototyping of applications • Direct interaction with hardware
• Disadvantages: • Disadvantages:
• Less optimized code • Less portability from one device to another
• Additional translation time from source to • Code is more difficult to read, reuse, and
machine code maintain
• Another level of abstraction to deal with • Low productivity

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High-level vs. low-level programming
Low-level example: Blinking LED by manipulating MCU registers

• A GPIO peripheral can be directly accessed by

writing/reading specific memory addresses:
• Assign a pointer to the address of each register
• Registers can be read/written using the pointer

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High-level vs. low-level programming
High-level example: Blinking LED using Mbed API
• Mbed provides a user-friendly object-oriented
API (C++ based)
• More friendly functions
• Defines basic operators to provide intuitive
casting to primitive types and assignments
• A digital I/O class is defined, as shown in the
code snippet on the right that we can use to
implement the LED blinking example.

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High-level vs. low-level programming
High-level example: Blinking LED using Mbed API
• With the support of the Mbed API, the same example can be programmed in a much simpler and more intuitive way:

... using Mbed API

code...

• Deep knowledge of C++ is not necessary to use the Mbed API. However, there are many C++ tutorials and books that
can prove helpful.

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Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS)
• Vendor-independent hardware abstraction layer for the Cortex-M processor series
• Provides a standardized software interface (library functions) that helps control the processor more
easily, e.g., configuring the Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller (NVIC)
• Improves software portability across different Cortex-M processors and Cortex-M based microcontrollers

Low-level programming Higher-level CMSIS programming

Configure Cortex-M by directly accessing Configure Cortex-M processors

registers in internal memory space, e.g., by using CMSIS libraries, e.g.,
*(unsigned int*) NVIC_INT_ENABLE = 0x01; NVIC_EnableIRQ(Timer_IRQn);

API
Arm CMSIS-Core

Cortex-M0

Cortex-M
Arm Cortex-M
Cortex-M3
Processor
Cortex-M4

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What is standardized by CMSIS?
Functions to access, e.g., NVIC, • Enables an interrupt or exception: NVIC_EnableIRQ (IRQn_Type IRQn)
System Control Block (SCB), and • Sets pending status of interrupt: void NVIC_SetPendingIRQ (IRQn_Type IRQn)
System Tick timer

• Read PRIMASK register: uint32_t __get_PRIMASK (void)

Access to special registers, e.g., • Set CONTROL register: void __set_CONTROL (uint32_t value)

Functions to access special • REV: uint32_t __REV(uint32_t int value)

instructions, e.g., • NOP: void __NOP(void)

Names of system initialization • System initialization: void SystemInit (void)

functions, e.g.,

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Benefits of CMSIS

Easier to port application code from

Easier to reuse the same code between
one Cortex-M based microcontroller to
different Cortex-M based
another Cortex-M based
microcontrollers
microcontroller

Better compatibility when integrating

third-party software components, since
Better code density and smaller
all third-party components, such as
memory footprint, since the code in
applications, embedded OS,
CMSIS has been optimized and tested
middleware, etc., can share the same
standard CMSIS interface

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CMSIS components
The CMSIS consists of the following components:
• CMSIS-CORE – implements basic run-time system
for a Cortex-M device
• CMSIS-RTOS – API that enables consistent
software layers with middleware and library
components
• CMSIS-DSP library – rich collection of DSP
optimized for various Cortex-M processor cores
• CMSIS-SVD files – enable detailed views of device
peripherals with current register state
• CMSIS-DAP – standardized interface to the
CoreSight Debug Access Port (DAP)
• CMSIS-NN – collection of neural network kernels

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CMSIS-DAP
Interface firmware for the debug unit that connects the debug port to USB

• Debugger can
connect via USB to
debug unit & device
• Debug unit
connected to target
via JTAG/SW
• CoreSight Debug and
Trace Unit on CPU
• Multi-core debugging

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Coming next
Module Contents
IoT Connectivity, Part I • Introduction to Bluetooth
• Bluetooth Low Energy
• ZigBee
IoT Connectivity, Part II • WLAN and LPWAN
• IEEE 802.11
• LoRaWAN
• NB-IoT
The Cloud • Virtual Machines and Containers
• Protocols
• Big Data Processing
• The Arm Pelion Platform

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