> The Segger product claims that it is keyed so that it only
> works with your particular J-LINK tool.
I think you perhaps misunderstood the statement (which took me a while
to find, it only appears on Segger's US site -
http://www.segger-us.com/jlinksoftware.html - you might have posted a
link to save me the effort!). They key the software to the serial
number of the J-Link you will use it with, the hardware is keyed to
nothing. The idea is to prevent you from buying one software license and
using it on multiple J-Link devices. Fair enough I say; but it does not
say that the hardware only works with their software.

OpenOCD works with a number of JTAG interfaces
(http://openocd.berlios.de/web/?page_id=40) - what's so special about
Segger's that you want to use theirs but not use their software?

The advantage of using Segger's software is that they provide you with
support. Since yours is a commercial application, paying for support is
perhaps not unreasonable. You may get it here for free, but only if
anyone cares to answer, and only if they provide good answers - that's
the risk you take, whereas you have much more leverage as a customer,
and won't need to sort the wheat from the chaff when you get a response.
My experience of Segger's technical support with embOS and emFile has
been good.


Clifford

Clifford Slocombe wrote:
>> The Segger product claims that it is keyed so that it only
>> works with your particular J-LINK tool.
> I think you perhaps misunderstood the statement (which took me a while
> to find, it only appears on Segger's US site -
> http://www.segger-us.com/jlinksoftware.html - you might have posted a
> link to save me the effort!). They key the software to the serial
> number of the J-Link you will use it with, the hardware is keyed to
> nothing. The idea is to prevent you from buying one software license and
> using it on multiple J-Link devices. Fair enough I say; but it does not
> say that the hardware only works with their software.
>
> OpenOCD works with a number of JTAG interfaces
> (http://openocd.berlios.de/web/?page_id=40) - what's so special about
> Segger's that you want to use theirs but not use their software?
>
> The advantage of using Segger's software is that they provide you with
> support. Since yours is a commercial application, paying for support is
> perhaps not unreasonable. You may get it here for free, but only if
> anyone cares to answer, and only if they provide good answers - that's
> the risk you take, whereas you have much more leverage as a customer,
> and won't need to sort the wheat from the chaff when you get a response.
> My experience of Segger's technical support with embOS and emFile has
> been good.

Thanks for the help Clifford,

I understood that it was the software product that was keyed to the JTAG
pod. I was wanting to know befor I spent my money if Segger had made
changes to the pod to work only with their software. I am expected to
evaluate the GNU tools to start with but I think that the plan is to by
the Keil tools. I was hoping to buy a JTAG pod that would work with
both. The JLINK pod does work woth the Keil tools through RDI.
>
>
> Clifford

> Thanks for the help Clifford,
>
> I understood that it was the software product that was keyed to the JTAG
> pod. I was wanting to know befor I spent my money if Segger had made
> changes to the pod to work only with their software. I am expected to
> evaluate the GNU tools to start with but I think that the plan is to by
> the Keil tools. I was hoping to buy a JTAG pod that would work with
> both. The JLINK pod does work woth the Keil tools through RDI.


I would suggest then that you ask Segger support@segger.com, but it
seems likely that it will work.

If your microcontroller is fully supported by Keil (most are), there are
many benefits of using their tools. Primarily Kiel's simulator simulates
not just the ARM core but also the microcontroller's peripherals, and
the debugger is far easier to use than GDB or even Insight. If you can
absorb the cost it may save you money in the longer term in saved time
alone. Then you might also consider Keil's U-Link device.

Clifford Slocombe wrote:
> Then you might also consider Keil's U-Link device.

We were considering Keil's U-LINK but the Segger J-LINK won out because
of the add on software module that provides for unlimited break points
while running from FLASH.

Harold Ritter wrote:
> Clifford Slocombe wrote:
>> Then you might also consider Keil's U-Link device.
>
> We were considering Keil's U-LINK but the Segger J-LINK won out because
> of the add on software module that provides for unlimited break points
> while running from FLASH.

That's useful to know.