Arm Compiler for Embedded

Arm Compiler for Embedded is a mature toolchain tailored to the development of bare-metal software, firmware, and Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) applications for Arm.

A safety qualified branch of Arm Compiler for Embedded, known as Arm Compiler for Embedded FuSa , is available for safety critical applications.

Access Arm Compiler for Embedded from Arm Development Studio

The easiest way to access the Arm Compiler for Embedded is to use the version provided with Arm Development Studio .

A given Development Studio version will contain the latest compiler version available at the time of release, and is generally up to date.

Cortex-M users can also use the compiler as provided with Keil MDK .

Alternative versions can be downloaded separately .

Arm Compiler for Embedded FuSa must also be downloaded separately .

Download standalone compiler packages

You can download individual compiler packages for all supported host platforms from the Arm Product Download Hub or the Arm Tools Artifactory .

Download Arm Compiler for Embedded from the Product Download Hub

You can download all compiler packages from the Arm Product Download Hub (requires login).

You can find download links to all available versions in the Arm Compiler downloads index .

You can use all compiler versions standalone or integrated into your Arm Development Studio installation. For more information on downloading a legacy Arm Compiler release, see What should I do if I want to download a legacy release of Arm Compiler?

For more information on usage, see Arm Product Download Hub .

Install compiler packages

The installation steps depend on your operating system.

Windows

To install on Windows, unzip the downloaded package, launch the installer, and follow on-screen prompts.

    

        
        
win-x86_64\setup.exe

    

Linux

To install on Linux hosts, untar the downloaded package and run the install script. The exact filenames are version and host dependent.

You can use the uname -m call to determine whether your machine is running aarch64 or x86_64, and target the downloaded package accordingly.

    

        
        
mkdir tmp
mv ARMCompiler6.24_standalone_linux-`uname -m`.tar.gz tmp
cd tmp
tar xvfz ARMCompiler6.24_standalone_linux-`uname -m`.tar.gz
./install_`uname -m`.sh --i-agree-to-the-contained-eula --no-interactive -d /home/$USER/ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24

    

Remove the install data when complete:

    

        
        
cd ..
rm -r tmp

    

Add the bin directory of the installation to the PATH and confirm armclang can be invoked.

    

        
        

export PATH=/home/$USER/ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24/bin:$PATH
armclang --version
  

    

    

        
        

set path=(/home/$USER/ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24/bin $path)
armclang --version
  

    

Download Arm Compiler for Embedded from the Arm Tools Artifactory

The Arm Compiler for Embedded, as well as other tools and utilities, are available in the Arm Tools Artifactory . The Keil Studio VS Code Extensions use the artifactory to fetch and install and the necessary components.

You can also fetch directly from the artifactory. This is particularly useful for automated CI/CD flows.

    

        
        
wget https://artifacts.tools.arm.com/arm-compiler/6.24/19/standalone-linux-armv8l_64-rel.tar.gz

    

The artifactory packages don’t have their own installers. You should manually extract files and configure. For example:

    

        
        
mkdir ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24
tar xvzf ./standalone-linux-armv8l_64-rel.tar.gz -C ./ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24 --strip-components=1
rm ./standalone-linux-armv8l_64-rel.tar.gz
export PATH=/home/$USER/ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24/bin:$PATH
export AC6_TOOLCHAIN_6_24_0=/home/$USER/ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.24/bin

    

Set up the product license

Arm Compiler for Embedded and Arm Compiler for Embedded FuSa are license-managed.

For license set up instructions, see Arm Licensing install guide .

Verify your installation

To verify everything works, compile a Hello World example.

Use a text editor to copy and paste the folowing code into a file named hello.c:

    

        
        
// hello.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
  printf("Hello World\n");
  return 0;
}

    

Compile the code with armclang:

    

        
        
armclang --target=aarch64-arm-none-eabi hello.c

    

If the command completes with no errors, the compiler is working.

For more information about the example, see the Arm Compiler for Embedded User Guide .

Integrate with Arm Development Studio

To integrate this compiler with Arm Development Studio, register the installation and configure the environment to use that version.

You’re now ready to use Arm Compiler for Embedded.