Segger Microcontroller Systems

Segger Microcontroller
Company type	GmbH
Industry	Embedded software
Founded	1992; 32 years ago
Headquarters	Monheim am Rhein, Germany
Products	Middleware components, JTAG development tools
Website	www.segger.com

Segger Microcontroller, founded in 1992, is a private company involved in the embedded systems industry. It provides products used to develop and manufacture four categories of embedded systems: real-time operating systems (RTOS) and software libraries (middleware), debugging and trace probes, programming tools (integrated development environment (IDE), compiler, linker), and in-system programmers (Flasher line of products). The company is headquartered in Monheim am Rhein, Germany, with remote offices in Gardner, Massachusetts; Milpitas, California; and Shanghai, China.

History

Segger Microcontroller was founded in 1992 by Rolf Segger in Hilden, Germany. The first product was the real-time operating system (RTOS), now named embOS. It was followed by emWin two years later. Initial products focused on RTOS and middleware products. However, the company later produced ISP-programming tools (Flasher) and debug probes (J-Link). In 2015, Segger introduced Embedded Studio, their cross-platform IDE for central processing units conforming to the ARM architecture, though recent versions are also used by RISC-V. All products are developed, maintained and updated in Germany except for Embedded Studio, which is primarily developed by a team of developers in the United Kingdom.

Product categories

Debug and trace probes

Segger is most noted for its J-Link family, which supports JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) and SWD (Serial Wire Debug) debug probes for microcontrollers that have older ARM cores (ARM7, ARM9, ARM11), ARM Cortex-M cores (M0, M0+, M1, M3, M4, M7, M23, M33, M85), ARM Cortex-R cores (R4, R5, R8), ARM Cortex-A cores (A5, A7, A8, A9, A12, A15, A17, A53, A72), Renesas RX, Microchip PIC32, SiLab EFM8, RISC-V.^[1] It is also repackaged and sold as an OEM item^[2] by Analog Devices as the mIDASLink, Atmel as the SAM-ICE, Digi International as the Digi JTAG Link, and IAR Systems as the J-Link and the J-Link KS. This is the only JTAG emulator that can add Segger's patented flash breakpoint software to a debugger to enable the setting of multiple breakpoints in flash while running on an ARM device which is typically hindered by the limited availability of hardware breakpoints.^[3]

In the following table, the top group are trace devices, the bottom group are educational / hobbyist devices.

J-Trace & J-Link Models^[4]
Model	Host USB speed	Host Ethernet speed	Host Wi-Fi	Debug connector (pin pitch)	Trace connector	Target voltage	Target max interface speed	Target max download speed	Target VCOM UART	Software features
J-Trace PRO Cortex-A/R/M	3.0 SS	1 Gbit/s	None	20-pin (0.1")	19-pin 0.05"	1.2V to 5V	50 MHz	4 MByte/s	2 pins	All
J-Trace PRO Cortex-M	3.0 SS	1 Gbit/s	None	20-pin (0.1")	19-pin 0.05"	1.2V to 5V	50 MHz	4 MByte/s	2 pins	All
J-Trace PRO RISC-V	3.0 SS	1 Gbit/s	None	20-pin (0.1")	19-pin 0.05"	1.2V to 5V	50 MHz	4 MByte/s	2 pins	All

J-Link PRO	2.0 HS	100 Mbit/s	None	20-pin (0.1")	None	1.2V to 5V	50 MHz	4 MByte/s	2 pins	All
J-Link ULTRA+	2.0 HS	None	None	20-pin (0.1")	None	1.2V to 5V	50 MHz	4 MByte/s	2 pins	All
J-Link WiFi	2.0 HS	None	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	20-pin (0.1")	None	1.2V to 5V	15 MHz	1 MByte/s	2 pins	All
J-Link PLUS and J-Link PLUS Compact	2.0 HS	None	None	20-pin (0.1")	None	1.2V to 5V	15 MHz	1 MByte/s	2 pins	All
J-Link BASE and J-Link BASE Compact	2.0 HS	None	None	20-pin (0.1")	None	1.2V to 5V	15 MHz	1 MByte/s	2 pins	Limited

J-Link EDU (discontinued)	2.0 HS	None	None	20-pin (0.1")	None	1.2V to 5V	15 MHz	1 MByte/s	2 pins	Limited
J-Link EDU Mini	2.0 FS	None	None	9-pin (0.1")	None	3.3V	4 MHz	0.2 MByte/s	None	Limited
J-Link OB (on board)	2.0 FS	None	None	Integrated	None	Depends	4 MHz	0.2 MByte/s	Depends	Limited

Note: Further models are J-Link LITE ARM, J-Link LITE CortexM, J-Link LITE RX, J-Link OEM.^[5]
Note: Software options vary by model: J-Flash, J-Flash-SPI, Ozone, RDDI, RDI, Unlimited Flash Breakponts.
Note: The EDU & EDU Mini models cannot be used for commercial software development, also doesn't come with J-Flash, J-Flash-SPI, RDDI, RDI options.
Note: Adapters and isolators are available to convert the 20-pin 0.1"/2.54mm male shrouded (box) header to another target board connector.^[6]
Note: The compact variants are functionally identical to the standard variants

References

External links

Official website

[1] Segger J-Link Product Line

[2] Advertisement

[3] Circuit Cellar - Digital Library - New Product News Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine

[4] J-Link Model Overview; segger.com

[5] Other J-Links; segger.com

[6] J-Link adapters and isolators; segger.com

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