​Texas Instruments Code Composer Studio 6

Code Composer Studio is the official IDE from Texas Instruments to support the different families of MCUs and MPUS. Code Composer Studio or CCS for short is based on Eclipse.

The new release 6 of CCS adds a new mode to support Energia-based sketches.

Features

Because CCS is based on Eclipse, installation requires downloading many large files and as many bundles as supported MCUs: MSP430, C2000, Stellaris, Tiva.

Although installing CCS6 is easier and faster than CCS5 to install, it takes a while --typically 2 hours-- and requires a fast internet connection.
  • On Windows, the anti-virus needs to be turned off during the installation. Some drivers aren't signed and thus raise security alarms. Find the procedures to enable the installation of unsigned driver for Windows 7 and Windows 8.
  • On Linux, additional packages are required but aren't included in the main installation nor downloaded automatically. There's no alternative but to follow those cryptic instructions.
  • On macOS, additional packages are required.
Once CCS is installed, adding new features is vastly improved thanks to the new application portal called App Centre. 
  • Add-ons include TI's official tool-chains and alternative tool-chains like GCC, real-time TI-RTOS.
  • Standalone softwares group controlSUITE, BIOS, Energia.
  • Additional resources provide pointers to the Code Composer Studio wiki and the LaunchPad pages.
The new release CCS6 includes a simplified GUI called CCS Simple among the different perspectives.
Thanks to the integration of the Energia framework, the new CCS6 manages to combine two opposites. 
  • Ease of use thanks to the Energia framework, with an standard set of C++ functions and a hardware abstraction layer. The same code runs across the different boards.
  • Advanced tools with a debugger with rich features and other powerful utilities.

The Project menu allows to import an existing Energia project or create a new one. When imported, the .ino file is converted into a standard .cpp file. 

However, contrary to Energia, it is not possible to change the board, for example create a project for a MSP430 and then switch to a Tiva C MCU. 

Enthusiast hobbyists and makers can leverage the hardware debugger featured in every LaunchPad board and keep the familiar Energia framework.
On selected LaunchPads or with the adequate emulator, CCS includes EnergyTrace, an energy profiler. It monitors power consumption and also estimates the battery life.

​See a full example at Ultra-Low Power with MSP430.

Conclusion

The underlying IDE remains Eclipse, with all its power and complexity, and annoying details. CCS is now available for the 3 major platforms, Linux, macOS and Windows.

I still don't understand why standard modern features are missing. For example, auto-completion isn't automatic. After typing in the first letters, the user needs to press Ctrl-Space in order to show a list of the corresponding functions and variables, when other professional IDEs like Visual Studio and Xcode automatically pop the drop-down list. On macOS, consider embedXcode instead. 

Texas Instruments engineers have done a splendid job with this new release 6 of Code Composer Studio, aimed at enthusiast hobbyists as well as professional developers.

Pros

  • All modern amenities
  • Imports and creates Energia sketches
  • Built-in debugging

Cons

  • Heavy IDE not easy to install 
  • Changing the board is not possible for Energia projects

Wrap-Up

  • Powerful IDE with all the modern amenities 
  • Support for Energia
  • Built-in debugger and energy profiler

Links

Posted:
Updated: Feb 03, 2017