ARM technology has always had a strong following in academic circles due to its simplicity and elegance. In addition, GNU tools support for ARM has provided students with a very low cost way of trying out ARM technology on Linux and even Windows machines.
Bluewater Systems supports ARM's committment to academic use of the ARM architecture. We supply tools to academic institutions at cost, have sponsors students projects and employed students during holiday periods.
As universities around the world latch onto ARM technology, we plan to bring the same benefits of the ARM University Program to universities in Australia and New Zealand.
Bluewater Systems has funded the development of three education kits:
One of the original designers of the ARM, Steve Furber, has spent many years as a Professor at Manchester University working asynchronous design and other topics using ARM technology.
Robin Saxby, now Chairman of ARM PLC, has been awarded an honourary degree by Loughborough University and ARM has supported that university to provide an example of what can be done with ARM technology in an university environment.
ARM provides up to a 90% discount on selected RealView tools for academic use under the ARM University Programme. This means that students need not suffer with inferior tools. ARM provides access to the same top-end tools used by engineers throughout the world, albeit not the very latest versions.
With RealView Developer Suite, a student can write and debug C and assembler programmes in a friendly simulated environment on Unix and Windows machines.
Given a development board and Multi-ICE, the student can debug low-level code and interrupt routines, and interface an ARM chip to real hardware. Since many boards are available with useful and interesting peripherals built-in, students can device many exciting and educational projects using ARM technology.
For ourselves, we see our role as making institutions aware of the benefits of ARM technology and providing information on how they can get started with the ARM University Programme. Please contact us for more information.