IAR Systems

IAR Systems is a Swedish computer-software company focused on tools for developing, testing, debugging, securing, and certifying embedded software. Its products are used by engineers who create firmware for microcontrollers, processors, and other devices in sectors such as industrial automation, automotive systems, consumer electronics, medical technology, telecommunications, and the Internet of Things. The company was founded in 1983 under the name Ingenjörsfirma Anders Rundgren, a Swedish expression meaning Anders Rundgren Engineering Company. Its early work centered on development tools for 8-bit processors. As embedded computing became more capable and complex, IAR Systems expanded into 16-bit and 32-bit processor markets and built a business around optimizing compilers, source-level debugging, and integrated development environments. The company later added support for 64-bit development, including Arm-based tools in 2021 and RISC-V support in 2022. IAR Systems' best-known offering is IAR Embedded Workbench, an integrated development environment combining C and C++ compilers, the C-SPY debugger, code-analysis capabilities, and optional security and functional-safety features. The toolchain supports a broad range of processor families and architectures, including Arm, RISC-V, 8051, AVR, MSP430, RL78, RH850, RX, STM8, V850, and other embedded targets. Its emphasis is on optimized generated code, professional debugging, broad device coverage, and compliance-oriented development workflows. The company also provides IAR Build Tools for automated compilation and testing in continuous-integration and continuous-delivery environments. IAR Visual State addresses graphical, state-based software design and can generate code in languages including C, C++, C#, and Java. Security and functional-safety extensions support workflows such as secure deployment, security analysis, and development against standards including ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and IEC 62304. These offerings position IAR Systems beyond a conventional compiler vendor: it serves as a specialized tooling partner for embedded teams managing reliability, safety, and security requirements. IAR Systems is headquartered in Uppsala and has a global operating presence through subsidiaries in Europe, Asia, and North America, supplemented by distributors in other regions. The company reports a workforce of more than 200 employees globally in the cited reference material. It operates as part of IAR Systems Group, which is associated with the Nasdaq Nordic market. Its current business scope is centered on commercial development tools and related engineering support for embedded software teams.

IAR Systems began in Sweden in 1983 as Ingenjörsfirma Anders Rundgren, named after founder Anders Rundgren. The company entered the embedded-software market when development systems were being built around relatively constrained 8-bit processors. Its initial proposition was to help engineers write and debug low-level software efficiently, particularly through compiler technology tailored to embedded hardware. As microcontrollers and embedded processors gained memory, performance, and functional complexity, IAR Systems expanded its technology across 16-bit and 32-bit architectures. This shift allowed the company to serve a wider range of embedded applications and established the foundations of its cross-architecture development-tool business. Rather than focusing on a single chip vendor, IAR Systems developed tools for numerous processor families, enabling customers to retain a familiar workflow while changing hardware platforms. The company's principal integrated environment evolved into IAR Embedded Workbench. The platform brought together optimizing C and C++ compilers, the C-SPY debugger, and additional analysis functions. Over time, the supported architecture set grew to include families such as Arm, 8051, AVR, MSP430, RL78, RH850, RX, STM8, V850, and others. The breadth of this support became a central part of the company's value proposition for engineering organizations developing products across multiple generations or hardware platforms. IAR Systems also extended its portfolio beyond conventional edit, compile, and debug functions. IAR Visual State provided graphical modeling and state-based design with code-generation capabilities. C-STAT and C-RUN added static and runtime analysis, while other extensions addressed security, secure deployment, and functional-safety development. Toolchains certified or designed for standards such as ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and IEC 62304 helped the company address industries where software defects can create safety, regulatory, or liability risks. The move toward automated engineering processes led to the introduction and expansion of IAR Build Tools. These tools target scripted and continuous-integration workflows, including automated builds and tests on Windows and Linux. This broadened IAR Systems' role from a desktop IDE supplier to a participant in modern software-production pipelines. The company continued to add support for newer processor directions. It introduced 64-bit Arm capability in 2021 and RISC-V support in 2022, reflecting the growing importance of those architectures in embedded and edge-computing applications. The cited material describes support for both established and newer instruction-set families, with the RISC-V tools covering RV32 and RV64 bases and associated extensions. IAR Systems is headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden, and operates internationally through subsidiaries in Germany, France, India, Japan, South Korea, China, the United States, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom, with distributors serving additional markets. It is part of IAR Systems Group, associated with a Nasdaq Nordic listing. The company remains an active provider of commercial embedded-development tools, with its portfolio organized around compiler technology, debugging, analysis, automation, security, and functional safety.

• 2022

  RISC-V support added

  [1]IAR Systemsen.wikipedia.org

  The company added RISC-V development support, including RV32 and RV64 base instruction-set configurations and related extensions.

• 2021

  64-bit Arm support added

  [1]IAR Systemsen.wikipedia.org

  IAR Systems expanded its Arm toolchain portfolio with support for 64-bit Arm development.

• 1983

  IAR Systems founded in Sweden

  [1]IAR Systemsen.wikipedia.org

  Ingenjörsfirma Anders Rundgren, later known as IAR Systems, was established by Anders Rundgren to develop engineering and software tools for embedded systems.

A specialist embedded-development tooling provider emphasizing optimized C/C++ toolchains, broad processor support, debugging, automated builds, and security- and safety-oriented engineering workflows.

• Integrated development environment and embedded toolchain

  IAR Embedded Workbench

  IAR Embedded Workbench is the company's principal integrated environment for embedded C and C++ development. It combines an optimizing compiler, the C-SPY source-level debugger, and analysis capabilities such as C-STAT static analysis and C-RUN runtime analysis. The environment supports more than 30 processor families and a wide range of 8-, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit targets, including Arm, RISC-V, 8051, AVR, MSP430, RL78, RH850, RX, STM8, and V850. Optional security and functional-safety capabilities support regulated or high-assurance development.

• Automated build and test tooling

  IAR Build Tools

  IAR Build Tools are designed for command-line, scripted, and continuous-integration workflows rather than only interactive IDE use. They support automated compilation and testing for embedded projects and are available for Windows and Linux environments. The tools are intended for teams that want to integrate IAR's compiler technology into reproducible software-production pipelines, including CI/CD systems and automated quality checks.

• Graphical software design and code generation

  IAR Visual State

  IAR Visual State is a graphical design tool for state-based software architecture. It helps developers model behavior and generate implementation code from those models. The product supports code generation in C, C++, C#, and Java, making it applicable to embedded and other software projects where explicit state-machine design can improve structure, traceability, and maintainability.

• Embedded security and safety tooling

  Security and Functional Safety Extensions

  These extensions address security analysis, secure deployment, and functional-safety engineering. The portfolio includes Secure Deploy, security-oriented analysis capabilities, and toolchains certified or developed for standards such as ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and IEC 62304. They are aimed at embedded developers working on automotive, industrial, medical, and other systems in which software assurance, compliance evidence, and controlled deployment are important.

• 2021.12.13

  IAR Systems appoints Richard Lind as CEO[2]IAR Systems任命Richard Lind为首席执行官automation.com

  The board of I.A.R. Systems Group AB appointed Richard Lind as CEO of IAR Systems; he had been serving as interim CEO since October 18, 2021.

• 2021.11.04

  Reported2021.11.04

  IAR Systems adds Linux and Windows support to IAR Build Tools for Arm[3]IAR Systems 为 IAR Build Tools for Arm 增加 Linux 和 Windows 支持prnewswire.com

  IAR Systems announced that IAR Build Tools for Arm now supports Linux and Windows installations, extending the tools for automated build and test workflows.

• 2021.08.02

  Reported2021.08.03

  IAR Systems and NSITEXE announce RISC-V functional-safety partnership[4]IAR Systems与NSITEXE宣布开展RISC-V功能安全合作eejournal.com

  IAR Systems announced a partnership with NSITEXE focused on providing development-tool solutions with functional-safety support for applications based on RISC-V.

• 2020.06.12

  Reported2020.06.12

  IAR Systems and GigaDevice partner on RISC-V MCU development tools[5]IAR Systems 与兆易创新合作支持 RISC-V MCU 开发工具tech.sina.com.cn

  IAR Systems announced a partnership with GigaDevice to provide development tools for GigaDevice’s RISC-V-core MCU products. IAR Embedded Workbench support for the MCU series was stated to be available.

• 2020.03.20

  Reported2020.03.20

  IAR Systems updates functional safety tools for Renesas RL78 MCUs[6]IAR Systems 更新 Renesas RL78 MCU 功能安全工具prnewswire.com

  IAR Systems released version 4.20 of IAR Embedded Workbench for Renesas RL78 functional safety edition, adding C18 and C++17 support, stack protection, and user-experience features.

Read more

1. 1IAR Systemsen.wikipedia.org
2. 2IAR Systems任命Richard Lind为首席执行官automation.com
3. 3IAR Systems 为 IAR Build Tools for Arm 增加 Linux 和 Windows 支持prnewswire.com
4. 4IAR Systems与NSITEXE宣布开展RISC-V功能安全合作eejournal.com
5. 5IAR Systems 与兆易创新合作支持 RISC-V MCU 开发工具tech.sina.com.cn
6. 6IAR Systems 更新 Renesas RL78 MCU 功能安全工具prnewswire.com