Ceva NeuPro-Studio: Development Environment for Ceva Targets

Ceva NeuPro-Studio is a Visual Studio Code extension that provides a comprehensive development environment for Ceva's NeuPro targets. It simplifies the process of creating, building, debugging, and managing projects for Ceva's AI processors. The extension also enables running profiling and graph compiler tools on AI models to optimize performance and analyze model behavior on Ceva hardware.

Features

Ceva NeuPro-Studio offers a rich set of features to enhance your development workflow:

• Project Management:
  • Create new Ceva projects with pre-defined templates (e.g., "Hello World" for C and C++, Empty Project).
  • Manage project settings and configurations.
  • Open and manage Ceva workspaces.
• SDK Configuration:
  • Easily set and manage the path to your Ceva SDK installation.
• Hardware Configuration (HW Config Manager):
  • Define and manage hardware configurations for your specific Ceva target device. This configuration is crucial for building and running projects accurately.
• Build System Integration:
  • Build projects using an integrated CMake-based build system.
  • Generate necessary linker scripts and toolchain files.
• Target Communication System (TCS Manager):
  • Prepare and manage the target system for execution and debugging sessions.
  • Activate and deactivate systems.
  • Verify system configurations.
• Debugging:
  • Integrated debugger for C/C++ applications running on Ceva targets.
  • Configure launch settings (program path, system, core, stop conditions, load options).
  • Support for standard debug operations (breakpoints, disassembly, memory view, stepping, etc..).
• Guided Workflow (Getting Started Walkthrough):
  • An interactive walkthrough to guide new users through the essential setup and development steps:
    1. Set Ceva SDK Location
    2. Open Workspace
    3. Create a Hardware Configuration
    4. Create New Project
    5. Build Your Project
    6. Prepare System for Run/Debug (using TCS Manager)
    7. Run/Debug Your Project
• User Interface:
  • Dedicated "Ceva NeuPro-Studio" activity bar icon and sidebar view for easy access to extension features.
  • Webview-based interfaces for TCS Manager, HW Config Manager, New Project creation, and a Home Page.

Requirements

• Visual Studio Code: Version ^1.9.0 or higher.
• Python: Version 3.8 and 3.12
• CMake: Minimum version 3.31
• Ceva SDK: A licensed version of the Ceva SDK must be installed.

Required VS Code Extensions

The following VS Code extensions are required for optimal development experience, they appear under the extension pack section:

• Memory Inspector by Eclipse CDT Cloud - For memory debugging and inspection
• C/C++ Extension Pack by Microsoft - Comprehensive C/C++ development support
• Excel Viewer by MESCIUS - For viewing and editing Excel files within VS Code

Extension Settings

This extension contributes the following settings, which can be configured in VS Code User or Workspace settings:

• ceva-neupro-studio.SDKPath:

  • Description: Specifies the absolute path to the Ceva SDK installation directory.
  • Default: "" (empty string, user will be prompted to set it).

• ceva-neupro-studio.cmakePath:

  • Description: Specifies the path to the CMake executable. Leave empty to use the default CMake from PATH.
  • Default: "" (empty string, uses default CMake).

Known Issues

• The Expressions view currently offers basic support for variables and registers; however, it does not yet handle complex expressions.
• Creating new build configurations and building them may encounter issues during the build process.