SEGGER's Ozone Offers Enhanced Debugging with RISC-V Semihosting

­SEGGER has expanded the capabilities of its debugger and performance analyzer, Ozone, by adding semihosting support for debugging RISC-V applications. This feature now enables RISC-V developers to use I/O to perform debugging tasks on the embedded system directly accessible by the host system, without the need for complex hardware setups.

By using the host’s resources, developers can easily send debug messages, manage files, and perform input/output operations. Ozone's RISC-V Semihosting supports developers in interacting more efficiently with their target devices during development.

“The current approval of the RISC-V Semihosting specification is a significant milestone, because it establishes an official standard for how RISC-V processors can communicate with host systems during development. We are proud that Ozone already fully supports it,” says Dirk Akemann, Head of Technical Marketing at SEGGER. “This immediate support ensures that developers working with RISC-V can take advantage of the benefits of semihosting right away.”

Designed specifically for embedded applications, Ozone is known for its speed and ease of use, especially with SEGGER's J-Link and J-Trace family of debug and trace probes.

More than a simple debugger, Ozone’s various features, including instruction tracing via J-Trace, live code profiling, and code-coverage analysis, make it a powerful tool for getting full system insight, obtaining verification, finding inefficiencies, and tracking down bugs.

Ozone’s user interface is intuitive and fully configurable. All windows can be moved, re-sized, and docked to fit the needs of any developer. The software is available across platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux, Arm, and Intel).

More information about Ozone’s RISC-V Semihosting is available here.