Debugging Complex Multicore Microcontroller Applications

According to Jens Braunes at PLS Programmierbare Logik & Systeme, the demand for debuggers capable of supporting heterogeneous and homogeneous environments continues to expand.

By Robert Huntley, EE Times Europe | April 24, 2025 

Debugging an application is an intrinsic part of any embedded system. For most straightforward developments, an integrated development environment (IDE) provides the prerequisite workflow functions of code editor, compiler, debugger, and profiler. However, as embedded systems become more complex, often involving multicore SoCs, real-time operating systems, and a mix of heterogeneous and homogeneous architectures, the need for platform-wide, time-synchronized debugging becomes crucial.

Growth of complex SoC devices with heterogeneous and homogeneous architectures

According to Jens Braunes, product marketing manager at PLS Programmierbare Logik & Systeme GmbH (Lauta, Germany), the demand for debuggers capable of supporting heterogeneous and homogeneous environments continues to expand. “Most of the devices we support are multicore systems since we have customers with a reasonable share of the automotive device market,” Braunes said. “These are typically microcontroller systems with a mix of the same architecture, which is the homogeneous part, but very often, these types of microprocessors or microcontrollers have a heterogeneous part. They often contain special cores based on different architectures dedicated to domain-specific applications like security and specialist timer and signal algorithms. Also, there may be special cores dedicated to accelerating AI workloads.”

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