Config for GD32 MCUs

[Kanifol]

Hi!
There are some problems with purchasing microcontrollers from ST manufacturer.
Now there are a lot of their clones. The most popular is GigaDevice. Therefore, the question arises with the support of these microcontrollers.
Can you help with creating a debug support project? For example, for GD32F330.

 

• This topic was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Kanifol.

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[support]

Sorry, we do not have any plans for supporting the Chinese clones of the ST devices. If you would like to get reliable development experience, please consider purchasing a genuine ST device and a genuine VisualGDB license.

[kucza]

These are not ” Chinese clones of the ST devices”. These are geniuine devices with ARM licence. Shure they are pin to pin compatibile (and peripherial as well) with ST.  Gigadevices MCUs are fully suported by IAR or KEIL compilers.

[support]

Hi,

We generally cannot advise STM32-compatible devices that are not manufactured by ST (or for ST) to our users due to the following concerns:

1. Many of the components of the ST software library are published under this license, that explicitly limits it to ST devices:
   

   This software or any part thereof, including modifications and/or derivative works of this software, must be used and execute solely and exclusively on or in combination with a microcontroller or microprocessor device manufactured by or for STMicroelectronics

   We are aware that some of the vendors provide their own software libraries, however the original ST libraries compatible with the genuine ST devices offer a wider selection of components, examples and libraries. Hence, we recommend using the original ST devices instead.

2. We did a brief research on the availability of the ST-compatible devices on major distributors (DigiKey and Mouser). At the time of checking, they did not carry any of the devices we checked.
3. We considered adding support for the STM32 Blue Pill board to Analyzer2Go some time ago and ran a few stress tests on some of the boards. As a result, the boards we tested stopped working. We did a brief online search involving the part number on one of the boards and found a few posts warning about the ST clones.
4. Comparing Google Trends for STM32 and some of the compatible device families showed a heavy bias towards the STM32-related search inquiries. We concluded that focusing on improving the STM32 integration will make our product relevant to a larger user base, than adding support for STM32-compatible devices not manufactured by ST.
5. We believe that the STM32 devices gained their popularity due to exceptionally well-designed and maintained software libraries, examples and configuration tools. As these tools are available free of charge and are funded by the sales of the genuine STM32 devices, and as an official ST partner, we believe it would be fair to advise our users to use the genuine STM32 parts.

After carefully reviewing the factors mentioned above, we decided to not officially support them. That said, VisualGDB is very flexible and offers various workarounds in case you would like to target the devices that are not supported officially:

1. VisualGDB is fully integrated with the IAR and Keil compiler, so you can simply install it and pick it in the Embedded Project Wizard if you would like to target a device not directly supported by VisualGDB.
2. You can also try creating a project manually as shown in this tutorial. This will also work with any device that is not directly supported by VisualGDB, but is based on a supported core (e.g. ARM).

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by support. Reason: clarified the reasons for not supporting the devices

[Johanan]

GD32FXXXX  is not compatible with STM32, it is legit and can be purchased at Digikey, Mouser and any other component supplier.

These are ARM devices, and in todays chips shortage, many of us are working very hard to find some solutions to the huge shortage. Using GigaDevice is some what a solution.  I think you should reconsider adding these ARM chips to VisualGDB. STM32 chips are simply unavailable, at almost any price.

[support]

Thank you for your feedback. We will continue monitoring the relative popularity of different device families and will consider directly supporting the ones becoming more popular.

[Johanan]

Actually STM32F303CC can be used as a target for GD303CC, However I am using GD32F303VG, which has 1024K flash and 96K SRAM.

Is there a simple way to tweak the device configuration so this full memory range can be used?

( I changed the linker script, but the it is not enough)

Thanks

[support]

As we have explained above, using the ST drivers with a non-ST device would be directly against the ST license terms, and may result in undefined behavior. We do not advise anyone to do it and cannot provide any help with it.

[Johanan]

Well,  as already said,  you can’t use ST drivers  as the chips are not compatible. You need to use GD driver library and remove all ST files from the project. I don’t see any problem in using gcc for this chip.

[Johanan]

The easiest way to use GD devices with VisualGDB is to import the Keil project in the GD examples template. Then Visual GDB ask for the chip, select any CortexM(x) from the available list according to the Cortex core, set correct link script according to available memories. Now you have a project with all hardware drivers  that complies. Add your own sources as needed.

[Sebastian]

What is indicated here seems correct to me, but given the scarcity of ST products there are alternatives such as GD that are not pirated copies because they have their own marketing license, it would be good if Sysprog visited the official gigadevice page to be able to implement the necessary libraries for to be able to have the GD models within your list, it is very bad to have to pay up to $20 for a microcontroller that used to cost $3 and also not be available, I have had to use GD32F103RC to replace some ST only some functions work the same but the others don’t. Friends of Sysprog if you put on sale a new version with alternative microcontrollers it would be greatly appreciated unless your company has restrictions to do so

[Johanan]

You are very lucky if you pay 20$ for an STM32 device. We just payed 125$ (each)  for 100 pcs of STM32F429. old price was 7$.

already invested over 10K$ in re-editing PCB for GD similar chip, which will take a lot of work to adopt, as all low level drivers need to change and re-code (hopefully GD will be easier to purchase, but no one can be sure about it).

[Zebi]

It is now almost a year later and STM has effectively gone out of business.

What are we going to do now? Start writing software for imaginary microcontrollers?

GigaDevice is among the last microcontroller manufacturers still active on the market.

We cannot act as if there was plenty of alternatives on the market.

[support]

You are always welcome to create a project manually by following this tutorial.  This will work for any device type that has a compatible GCC toolchain and is not directly supported by VisualGDB.

We can also create an out-of-the-box BSP if sufficient users with active licenses confirm their interest in this device family, or if anyone agrees to directly cover the research and testing costs, as we do for other niche devices.

[Zebi]

How does this process of confirming the license to be taken seriously work?

[Author]

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