Once you checked out https://github.com/DataArt/ebc-template repository and created a separate directory for out-of-source build, you need to run a command like this:

cmake ../mbed-template/ -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=../mbed-template/lm3s6965evb.cmake \
    -DTOOLCHAIN_PATH=~/gcc-arm-none-eabi/bin -DQEMU_PATH=~/qemu-arm/bin

The first argument of the cmake command specifies a directory that contains CMakeLists.txt file - a file that holds project description, and defines rules of how to compile and link the project.

DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE argument specifies so called toolchain file. This file basically redefines standard cmake definitions. It can define the way cmake actually invoke particular command. For instance, if you need to use arm-none-eabi-gcc executable insteard of gcc, this file is a right place to acomplish this.

If you read this, most likely you have faced the same issue I did. It means that most likely you have downloaded cmsis implementation from one of the biggest silicon manufacturer in the world - TI. And the library does not work. Even worth, your toolchain cannot assemble it and failed on strex instruction.

strex r0, r0, [r1]

It seems like someone do not give a dump about specifications. Because it cleary states that For STREX, Rd must not be the same register as Rt, Rt2, or Rn.

As you may know, any digital circuit can be either combinational or sequential. And all modern microcontroller, including lm3c, consists of circuits of both types.

A simplest example for combinational logic is just a boolean expression like B = not A. This expression does not compute value of B, but rather states that B is an inverted value of signal A. In electronics world this means that once a signal comes to input A it is immediately appear on output B.

On other hand sequential logic requires and an additional input, which moves circuit from one state to another. In microcontrollers an example of such an additional signal is a clock.