Code Composer Studio


Code Composer Studio is an integrated development environment to develop applications for Texas Instruments embedded processors.
Texas Instruments embedded processors include TMS320 DSPs, OMAP system-on-a-chip, DaVinci system-on-a-chip, Sitara applications processors, Hercules microcontrollers, Simplelink MCUs, MSP430 and Tiva/Stellaris microcontrollers. It also enables debugging on several subsystems such as Ducati, IVA Accelerator and PRU-ICSS.
Code Composer Studio is primarily designed as for embedded project design and low-level JTAG based debugging. However, the latest releases are based on unmodified versions of the Eclipse open source IDE, which can be easily extended to include support for OS level application debug and open source compiler suites such as GCC.
Early versions included a real time kernel called DSP/BIOS and its later inception SYS/BIOS. Currently, the successor to these tools, the TI-RTOS embedded tools ecosystem, is available for downloading as a free plugin to Code Composer Studio.

History

Originally Code Composer was a product from a company called GO DSP located in Toronto, Canada, and it was acquired by TI in 1997. After the acquisition, Code Composer was bundled with a real-time kernel named DSP/BIOS and its name was appended with the word Studio.
CCS releases up until 3.3 were based on a proprietary interface, but TI was already working in parallel on the development of an IDE based on the open-source Eclipse. This IDE was named Code Composer Essentials and was designed for the MSP430 line of microcontrollers. This expertise was used to completely overhaul the previous CCS and starting with release 4.0 all versions are also based on Eclipse.
Code Composer was originally developed for DSP development, therefore one of its main differentiators at the time was the availability of graphical visualization tools and support for visualizing memory in several numeric formats.
Starting in 2015, a Cloud computing version of CCS was introduced and is part of the suite TI Cloud Tools, which also hosts Resource Explorer and Pinmux.

Versions

Code Composer

Over the years CCS followed the trend of the software industry for reduced and free-of-charge software licensing, reflected across the releases:
For all releases an annual paid subscription fee was required to grant updates for upcoming major releases.
Historically CCS supported only JTAG debug probes from TI - also called XDS emulators. The XDS510-class and the more advanced XDS560-class emulators are supported across all releases, but the new low-cost XDS100-class emulator started to be supported starting with the latest patches to release 3.3.
Releases 4.x added support for an updated design of the existing XDS100-class emulator and, in release 4.2, added support for an updated design of the XDS560-class emulator.
Release 5.2 added support for the new XDS200-class emulators.
Up until release 4.x, CCS supported only XDS emulators. With the integration of MSP430 and Stellaris microcontrollers, support was added for their respective JTAG debug probes: MSP-FET430 and ICDI.
Release 5.x also saw the introduction of Beta support for J-Link JTAG debug probes from Segger.
Release 6.0.x saw the introduction of the new MSP-FET debug probe for MSP430 devices and the new XDS200-class of debug probes for processors.
Release 6.1.x saw the introduction of the new XDS110-class of debug probes for processors. It also saw the migration to full production support for J-Link JTAG debug probes from Segger.
Release 7.x saw the integration of J-Link JTAG debug probes from Segger directly in the CCS installer. It is also the first release to support the standalone version of XDS110.
64-bit releases do not support Spectrum Digital XDS510USB JTAG debuggers.