Texas Instruments' Code Composer Studio is now free (as in beer) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Jope
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2016, 01:14:49 pm
content: From theirCode Composer FAQ page:"Effective with release of Code Composer Studio v7 – TI is no longer charging for CCS licenses. Simply download fromwww.ti.com/ccstudioand begin."

author: diyaudio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2016, 01:41:53 pm
content: Quote from: Jope on December 16, 2016, 01:14:49 pmThere are licenses for existing v6 users as well.Oh Yes

author: ^_^
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2016, 02:19:31 pm
content: So it's for commercial use too?Today I just realized there's also free Keil uVision if you use STM32F0 (M0 cores), that's paid by STM (http://www2.keil.com/stmicroelectronics-stm32/mdk).Anyway it seems TI joined other vendors that offer their IDE for free, it's about time ;-) someone is using their brains haha

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2016, 10:14:19 am
content: While welcome, this os a double edged sword. Once the bean counters realise it's no longer a direct revenue stream you can be almost certain of crappier support and flakier half baked untested releases, not that most embedded vendors have a stellar track record in this department anyway.

author: diyaudio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2016, 12:16:39 pm
content: Quote from: Howardlong on December 17, 2016, 10:14:19 amCompanies make money off the Silicon, the tooling around it should be free, the more people use break/report bugs the faster the QA cycle resulting in better quality of the tools, they don't have enough patience to deal with in house QA maybe the resources/budget isn't there.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2016, 12:18:30 pm
content: Thank you , good news indeed, at least personally, cause I've sold my soul for mcu arm platform to TI.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2016, 12:37:04 pm
content: Quote from: diyaudio on December 17, 2016, 12:16:39 pmThat's the way you and me look at it. Bean counters on the other hand are a different breed.One thing to be aware of though is that although I might have a five or six figure silicon budget each year, there are now vast swathes of tinkerers whose spend is sub $100 pa, and for whom they're unlikely to see any return.The biggest problem with skimping on QA on compilers in particular is that the way bugs manifest themselves are often subtle, and can cost a lot of money and time in your development projects. If you've ever suffered at the hands of compiler bugs, particularly unreported ones, you'll know what I mean. They're rare, but they do happen, and the workarounds are not always nice.On the whole though I hope that other vendors follow suit, it's been going in that direction for some time. I just pray they don't skimp on the fundamentals and realise that delivering a crap compiler and tools will have a significant cost in sales because developers will give up and lose faith when it doesn't work.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2016, 04:31:49 pm
content: Quote from: Howardlong on December 17, 2016, 12:37:04 pmMaybe those bean counters are looking for similar or sort of Arduino's effect on Atmel mcu ?Quote from: Howardlong on December 17, 2016, 12:37:04 pmCurrently the supported platforms by CCS ...MSP Low Power MCUsC2000 Real-time MCUsSimpleLink Wireless MCUsTM4x MCUsTMS570 & RM4 Safety MCUsSitara (Cortex A & ARM9) ProcessorsMulticore DSP and ARM including KeyStone ProcessorsF24x/C24x devicesC3x/C4x DSPsThese list covers almost TI platforms, and one heck of risk if they're planning to skimp on the "compiler" part, imo.