Code Composer Studio (CCStudio or CCS) is an integrated development environment for developing 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 (MSP432 and other Wireless connectivity microcontrollers), 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 for embedded project design and low-level (baremetal) JTAG based debugging. Versions 4.0 to 12.8 are based on the Eclipse open source IDE, which can be easily extended to include support for OS level application debug (Linux, Android, Windows Embedded) and open source compiler suites such as GCC. Starting with Version 20 in December 2024, CCS is based on the Eclipse Theia platform and IDE. 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

Code Composer Studio was first developed under the name Code Composer by the software company GO DSP, located in Toronto, Canada, which was acquired by Texas Instruments in 1997. Integration with DSP/BIOS was added to Code Composer, and Code Composer was rebranded as Code Composer Studio. CCS releases up until 3.3 were based on a proprietary interface. TI developed a new IDE based on the open-source Eclipse, named Code Composer Essentials (CCE), that was designed for the MSP430 line of microcontrollers. Beginning with release 4.0, all new versions of CCS would also use an interface based upon Eclipse. Code Composer was originally developed for DSP development and featured graphical visualization tools (XY graphs, FFT magnitude and phase, constellation, raw image visualization) and support for visualizing memory in several numeric formats (decimal, floating-point). 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

Code Composer Studio

CCS Cloud

Licensing

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.

JTAG Debug probe support

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 (called XDS100v2) and, in release 4.2, added support for an updated design of the XDS560-class emulator (called XDS560v2). 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 (both parallel and USB versions) 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.