Powerful Tool for Embedded Development – Register Viewer (RegisterMaster)

For software or hardware engineers engaged in embedded low-level development, it is common to refer to chip manuals. For example, when checking the register values of a chip’s serial controller, it is necessary to know which bits correspond to these values. While the programmer mode of the Microsoft calculator can display the binary or hexadecimal relationships of register values, it does not provide an intuitive representation of each bit of the register values. Therefore, a software tool is needed to visually display the relationship between register values and bits.

I found a software online that I used, and while it was okay, I was not entirely satisfied with some features. Thus, I thought about writing my own register viewer, coding it according to the features and layout I wanted. This idea has been in my mind for a long time, and due to various reasons, I only recently started working on it and successfully completed it. I feel that this register viewer – RegisterMaster is quite good.

The overall layout and color scheme of the Register Viewer – RegisterMaster reference other software interfaces. The entire software is implemented using Qt, without using drag-and-drop controls to layout the interface; I manually coded the layout for each button, label, edit box, etc., using pure C++.

The Register Viewer – RegisterMaster supports the following features:

1. The Register Viewer – RegisterMaster supports viewing register values of 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit;

2. Supports switching between signed and unsigned decimal numbers;

3. Supports switching between uppercase and lowercase hexadecimal letters;

4. Supports the software interface staying on top;

5. Supports displaying hexadecimal, decimal, octal, and binary content simultaneously;

6. The value input box uses regular expressions to prevent users from entering invalid values;

7. Supports quick viewing of ASCII codes;

8. Supports bit-shifting operations on values;

9. Supports opening the calculator function;

The overall effect of the Register Viewer – RegisterMaster is as follows:

Register Viewer – RegisterMaster in 32-bit mode:

Register Viewer – RegisterMaster in 64-bit mode:

You can click on each corresponding button in the image, for example, the button corresponding to bit 7 is currently 1. When you click the bit 7 button, it will change from 1 to 0, and the color will also change. The values in the decimal input boxes below will also change accordingly. Of course, we can also modify the values in the decimal input boxes, and the values of the buttons above will change accordingly.

A simple operation demonstration of the Register Viewer is shown in the following image:

Register Viewer – RegisterMaster ASCII page:

The Register Viewer can display each bit of the data as 0 or 1 more intuitively, which is useful for comparing register settings. Generally, the Register Viewer is used in conjunction with the calculator.

This is a brief introduction to RegisterMaster; I personally find it quite convenient. If there are any bugs in the software or features that need to be added, feel free to leave a message or follow my personal public account for feedback.