CFB Software

Astrobe

An Integrated Oberon Software Development System for Arm Cortex-M Microcontrollers

What is Astrobe?

Astrobe is a complete integrated embedded Oberon software rapid development system running on Windows. It includes a multi-file, fully featured, syntax-aware programmer's editor, native code compiler, linker and builder, program uploader and a serial terminal. Use it to develop reliable embedded software to run on the powerful Arm Cortex-M families of microcontrollers. This includes RP2040 (Cortex-M0+) / RP2350 (Cortex-M33) devices from Raspberry Pi and Cortex-M0/M0+, M3, M4 and M7 devices from STMicroelectronics.

Install and Go

Installation of the complete system takes minutes from a single setup file. The startup files, library modules and examples included with Astrobe enable you to start writing your applications without having to work from scratch. The source code of these modules is included allowing you to tailor them to suit your specific requirements.

Astrobe has been tested with a range of inexpensive off-the shelf development boards. Astrobe uploads the compiled code to the target from your PC via a USB connection and allows you to communicate with your application in its serial terminal window.

A Modern Language

Astrobe uses Oberon-07, the latest version of the programming language Oberon. Its carefully designed features allow you to develop embedded software with efficient, reliable, compiled high- and low-level native code without the quirks and complexities associated with other languages.

Reliable Tools

The Astrobe Oberon compiler was developed specifically to support Arm Cortex-M targets so it is compact and comprehensible. Unlike other compilers used for these systems, its size is measured in thousands, not hundreds of thousands, lines of code. The end-result is a very robust system. Any problems reported are usually diagnosed and any necessary workaround provided within a day or two, with fixes included in the next maintenance release.

Troubleshooting your Code

Astrobe identifies many common programming errors at compile / link time before you even run your program; most others are automatically trapped at runtime. The system automatically identifies the point of failure by module / procedure name and source code line number so no time is wasted trying to track down spurious side-effects.

Feature Comparisons

Refer to the feature comparisons for a summary of what is included in each package:

Documentation

Download PDF documentation: the Oberon Language Report, Programmers Guides etc.

Examples

Try the ready to compile and run source code examples distributed with Astrobe - such as the example code for a simple LED-blinking program. 

Additional source code examples can be viewed and downloaded from the Astrobe forum.

Download Oberon programming text books for source code examples used to solve general programming tasks.

Technical Support

Quick and accurate technical support is vital to the usefulness of any software development system. Technical support is available by priority email for Professional users and on a web-based forum for all other users.

System Requirements

Refer to following files for details of the System Requirements etc.