The CrossWorks Shield Library is a standard API that runs on a collection of popular microprocessors and evaluation boards. It is a way for Rowley Associates to deliver examples, from simple to complex, for those boards.
In particular, the Shield Library requires the CrossWorks Tasking Library for operation. Because the Shield Library, and facilities built on top of it, use interrupts and background processing, we made the decision to use the CrossWorks Tasking Library as a foundation stone for the Platform Library. We have not abstracted the Shield Library to use a generic RTOS as this adds more complexity to the design.
Standardizing on the Shield Library provised a certain amount of portability for you applications. Rather than using vendor-supplied libraries that get you running quickly on their silicon, you can invest some time learning the Shield Library and use that knowledge across different architectures. You are, however, committing to use CrossWorks, CTL, and the Shield Library for the long term.
The Shield Library it is not a general-purpose API supporting every feature offered by common devices, nor does it cater for all devices within a family. The Shield Library is tested on the microprocessors and evaluation boards that Rowley Associates deliver examples for. Certainly, you can use it with little or no modification on boards that have other processors in the families we support, but you will need to customize the Shield Library implementation yourself.
The Shield Library runs on the following microprocessor families:
The range of boards and microprocessors that run the Shield Library continues to expand. Please check the CrossWorks web site for the latest information.