SVD File Validation and Usage

The description quality is key to success of the CMSIS-SVD format. Aspects of quality are:

• Syntactical and structural compliance with the specified CMSIS-SVD format.
• Consistency and correctness.
• Completeness.
• Level of detail.

Automated validations are done on two levels:

1. The CMSIS-SVD Schema File: The schema file specifies the syntax and structure of an XML-based format. XML tools use the schema file for checking the syntactical and structural correctness of an XML file that claims compliance with a certain format. The schema file CMSIS-SVD.xsd can be found in the folder .\CMSIS\Utilities of the ARM::CMSIS Pack.
   
   
2. SVD Conversion Utility: ARM provides the conversion utility SVDConv.exe to check the semantics and consistency of the data contained in a CMSIS-SVD file. SVDConv.exe is included in the CMSIS distribution.

CMSIS-SVD files can be used to generate:

1. CMSIS-compliant device header files from a CMSIS-SVD description. Refer to the conversion tool SVDConv.exe for details. CMSIS device header files are developed and maintained by the silicon vendors. Therefore, the expectation is that this conversion is only of interest to these parties.
2. Debug dialogs that communicate with a debugger. See below.

System Views

A number of tool vendors support the CMSIS-SVD format with their products. Refer to the tools documentation to find out how to use CMSIS-SVD descriptions with the debugger of your choice. You can download the latest versions of available CMSIS-SVD files from the Public Download Area on the ARM web.

Generated Debug Dialog:

uVision Debug Window generated from ARM_Example.svd