Eclipse TCF (Target Communication Framework)
The TCF Project provides a modular service-based communication system for building control, debug, and analysis
tools for embedded systems. TCF clients and services can discover each other at run-time, providing for streamlined
out-of-box experience. TCF uses a single communication link for all tooling needs, simplifying target communications
setup and ensuring a consistent view of the target state.
TCF can intelligently cache data on the host, reducing communication overhead and improving run-time performance.
A reference Eclipse view is available today to help you get started, as well as a complete C/C++ debugger for Linux.
The lightweight reference agent under EDL / BSD license is easy to port to other environments such as
hardware debuggers, trace units or simulators. Language bindings are available for a range of languages,
including C, Java, Python, and Lua, on both the host and the target side.
See the TCF Wiki for details.
Current Status
Development is underway for TCF 1.1 for Eclipse Kepler, due June 2013.
News:
TCF Debug supports ARM
March 25, 2013 -Initial ARM debugging support has been added to TCF. Look at the Raspberry Pi HOWTO.
TCF Testimonials
By replacing a gdb based debugger with TCF, Xilinx has increased the performance
of basic debugger commands up to 50 times, while providing a much more stable product.
The modular and asynchronous approach of TCF is so compelling that we are moving
over our JTAG tools to use the same framework.
— Tomas Evensen, Chief Scientist Embedded Software, Xilinx