Black Magic Debug vs OllyDbg

Black Magic Debug is a free JTAG/SWD debugger for embedded microcontrollers, aimed at professional developers who want control over build systems and testing environments. Its firmware includes a GDB server that detects targets automatically, without target-specific configuration scripts. Debugging tools include watchpoints, flash memory breakpoints, memory and register examination, and flash programming. The project describes support for ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-A microcontrollers; its listed target platforms also include RISC-V, and remote debugging is supported. The probe connects as a standard USB CDC ACM virtual serial device, with no special driver needed for this interface on Linux or macOS. The debugger works with Linux, macOS, and Windows. The GDB server also supports semihosting and host I/O, Serial Wire Output, and USB DFU firmware upgrades. Documentation includes guides for PlatformIO and STM32CubeIDE. It can also be compiled as a desktop application and used with BMP, ST-Link, FTDI-MPSSE, SEGGER J-Link, or CMSIS-DAP adapters. Desktop-app programming is a little slower, though BMP development may be faster because firmware upload is unnecessary. Getting started requires a Black Magic Probe and a suitable target toolchain.

OllyDbg is a free 32-bit assembler-level debugger for Microsoft Windows, intended for binary analysis when source code is unavailable. It traces registers and identifies procedures, loops, API calls, switches, tables, constants, and strings. The debugger can load DLLs, attach to running programs, and handle multithreaded applications. Breakpoint types include conditional, logging, memory, and hardware breakpoints; execution tracing can log arguments for known functions. Patches can be retained between sessions, written back to executable files, and used to update fixups. An open architecture supports third-party plugins, and the maker provides a Plugin Development Kit with documented samples. Listed requirements include Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, 2000, or higher; Win32s is unsupported. Development is frozen, and the 64-bit version is incomplete. Registration is free and requested for permanent or commercial use. The maker says original versions 1.00–1.10 do not communicate with other computers except for remote files specified by the user.