Analog Devices ADSP-BF59x Blackfin, Hardware Reference Manual, Page: 63 / 772

ADSP-BF59x Blackfin Processor Hardware Reference 1-21
Introduction
The Vi+ Kernel (VDK) incorporates scheduling and resource
management tailored specifically to address the memory and timing con-
straints of DSP programming. These capabilities enable engineers to
develop code more effectively, eliminating the need to start from the very
beginning, when developing new application code. The VDK features
include threads, critical and unscheduled regions, semaphores, events, and
device flags. The VDK also supports priority-based, pre-emptive, coopera-
tive and time-sliced scheduling approaches. In addition, the VDK was
designed to be scalable. If the application does not use a specific feature,
the support code for that feature is excluded from the target system.
Because the VDK is a library, a developer can decide whether to use it or
not. The VDK is integrated into the Vi+ development environ-
ment but can also be used with standard command-line tools. The VDK
development environment assists in managing system resources, automat-
ing the generation of various VDK-based objects, and visualizing the
system state during application debug.
Analog Devices emulators use the IEEE 1149.1 JTAG test access port of
the processor to monitor and control the target board processor during
emulation. The emulator provides full speed emulation, allowing inspec-
tion and modification of memory, registers, and processor stacks.
Nonintrusive in-circuit emulation is assured by the use of the processor’s
JTAG interface—the emulator does not affect target system loading or
timing.
In addition to the software and hardware development tools available
from Analog Devices, third parties provide a wide range of tools support-
ing the Blackfin processor family. Hardware tools include the
ADSP-BF59x EZ-KIT Lite standalone evaluation/development cards.
Third party software tools include DSP libraries, real-time operating sys-
tems, and block diagram design tools.