AVR ICE-Cube (was Re: [avr-chat] Re: Programmer for everyone!)

[Graham Davies]

William Bulley wrote:

> can you tell me in 25 words or less just exactly what your
> AVR ICE-Cube does for me?

For a useful sub-set of AVR microcontrollers, you can download firmware, set 
fuses, etc. AND perform SOURCE-LEVEL DEBUGGING of your program.  See 
http://www.ecrostech.com/AtmelAvr/AvrIceCube/index.htm and help for the JTAG 
ICE in AVR Studio.  This is also true of other JTAG ICE clones.

> Also, all this talk about AVR Studio from Atmel confuses me.

Unfortunately, Atmel (like many other corporations) pretty much assumes you 
have a Windows system.  It's just a fact of life.  There's a lot of 
documentation you can't get at (legally) without a Windows system.  The AVR 
Dragon documentation, for example.  People do re-publish this stuff, but 
strictly that's in violation of copyright and it's up to you whether you 
make use of it or not.

>  If it does work with Linux/Unix that is great ...

The AVR ICE-Cube works with the GNU/Linux/FreeBSD tools that are frequently 
discussed here in the same way that the Atmel JTAG ICE does (and other 
clones as well - I'm trying to be scrupulously fair, here).

> but if I abhor Windoze and still am want to work with AVR designs,
> are the avr-gcc and related tools (avrdude comes to mind) on Linux
> suitable or does one need a Windoze box to glean something critical
> from Atmel?

I abhor Windoze too.  But, I respect software licenses.  My reading of the 
license agreement of AVR Studio is that I can't redistribute it in pieces. 
I interpret that to mean that I can't preload the Atmel firmware on the AVR 
ICE-Cube.  So, you would need access to a Windoze box with AVR Studio 
installed to get the AVR ICE-Cube ready for use.  On the other hand, I 
sometimes drive over the speed limit so I'm obviously prepared to make 
exceptions.  If you decide you'd like an AVR ICE-Cube, I can pre-load the 
firmware on an individual basis.  I have done this once before out of many 
hundreds of AVR ICE-Cubes sold.

For a "newbie enthusiast", however, I would recommend that you consider the 
AVR Dragon as it probably gives you more options than the AVR ICE-Cube for 
not much more money.

Graham.