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Static vs Source Builds

heliaRT ships in two distribution forms. Choose based on how much control you need.

Prebuilt Static Libraries

Every GitHub release publishes a bundle containing pre-compiled .a archives covering the full matrix:

Dimension Values
Architecture cortex-m4+fp, cortex-m55
Toolchain gcc, armclang, atfe
Build variant debug, release, release_with_logs

Archive layout inside the bundle:

helia-rt-<tag>.zip
├── cortex-m4+fp/
│   ├── gcc/
│   │   ├── debug/
│   │   ├── release/
│   │   └── release_with_logs/
│   ├── armclang/
│   └── atfe/
├── cortex-m55/
│   └── ...
└── include/   # public headers

Fastest path

Unzip, point your build at the right .a + include/, and you're done.

Source Builds

Clone the repository and build from source:

git clone https://github.com/AmbiqAI/helia-rt
cd helia-rt
make -f tensorflow/lite/micro/tools/make/Makefile \
    TARGET=cortex_m_generic \
    TARGET_ARCH=cortex-m55 \
    OPTIMIZED_KERNEL_DIR=helia \
    microlite

When to Use Each

Criterion Static (prebuilt) Source
Time to first build Seconds (download + link) Minutes (download deps + compile)
Debuggability No source stepping Full step-through debugging
Custom kernel changes Not possible Yes
CI reproducibility Pinned to release tag Tag or HEAD
Size Smaller download Full repo (~hundreds of MB)
Toolchain flexibility Must match published toolchain Any supported toolchain

Zephyr users

In a Zephyr workspace you can use either approach:

  • Source module: add heliaRT as a west module and let CMake compile from source.
  • Prebuilt bundle: download and extract the release archive, then reference it as a library.

See the Zephyr getting-started guide for details.

Next Steps