Debugging the future: Rolf Segger on J-Link, open source, and embedded longevity
Rolf Segger has built a career around a part of embedded development that’s easy to take for granted: the tools. In our latest interview, the SEGGER founder reflects on why debuggers, compilers, and build environments matter most years after a product ships — when you still need to reproduce a firmware build, fix a security bug, or add features to deployed hardware.
Segger argues that long-term support is becoming non-negotiable, especially in industrial, telecom, and aerospace markets where products live for a decade or more. Regulations are reinforcing that reality, too, pushing manufacturers to maintain secure, rebuildable software over extended lifetimes. The hidden risk, he says, is that many teams don’t treat toolchains as part of their risk management plan — even though a supplier acquisition, licensing lock-in, or an obsolete dongle can make old builds impossible to reproduce.
Watch the full interview in the video below.
“You need to be able to rebuild your software. You need to be able to fix bugs,” Segger told eeNews Europe. “I mean, these days, with the European Union with their CRA — the Cyber Resilience Act — they actually make it legal requirement. And I think that’s coming in other places as well.”
Open source has changed the landscape. Today, GCC and Clang are strong options for mainstream ARM and RISC-V work, and silicon vendors increasingly ship usable toolchains built on that foundation. That shifts the role of independent tool vendors — but doesn’t eliminate it. SEGGER’s strategy relies on multiple pillars, with J-Link debug probes and production flash tools remaining difficult to replace with “free” alternatives, particularly when reliability, speed, and broad device support are required.
The interview also dives into a technical theme that underpins SEGGER’s roadmap: using a “virtual core” approach inside tools like Flasher (and increasingly J-Link) to execute device-specific routines locally, avoiding USB latency and reducing the need to rebuild firmware for every new chip. Segger also previews plans to open parts of the ecosystem through SDKs so third parties can extend device and core support.
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