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Open-source, free, or low-cost compiler? (UART access to HCI for CC2540)

Andy van Tol
Prodigy 95 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CC2540, TIMAC, Z-STACK, SIMPLICITI, CODECOMPOSER, BLE-STACK

Does anyone know if there is an open-source, free, or low-cost compiler that can compile HostTestRelease?

I only want to enable the UART access to HCI for the CC2540 keyfob.

Surely I can't be the first person who wants to do this!

I've confirmed that EW8051 (kickstart) won't do this. Don't want to use the 30-day version (yet).

  • 0
    TI__Genius 9990 points

    There's a gcc toolchain for 8051:

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/mcs51gcc/

     

    Regards,
    Gustavo

  • 0 in reply to Gustavo L
    Prodigy 95 points

    Gustavo-

     

    Thanks for the suggestion, but the project has "no files"... must be dead.

     

    Andy

  • 0 in reply to Andy van Tol
    Guru 18515 points

    Hi Andy,

    here's a post with a slightly different software combination but I'm afraid it will have the same result as yours. No workaround and / or alternative.

     

    http://e2e.ti.com/support/low_power_rf/f/158/p/57743/205380.aspx#205380

     

    Anyway, I usually work under Debian Linux and I am thinking about having a whole virtualbox machine with original windows XP only devoted to develop IAR stuff so when the trial period expires, perhaps I will save the current code and get back to the latest snapshot when no IAR is installed, download and repeat the process. As far as I know, this is not illegal if you own the Windows license, as I do.

    Good luck.

  • 0
    Prodigy 95 points

    After trying to compile the CC2540 HostTestRelease project with SDCC and Eclipse, I've concluded that it's RIDICULOUSLY difficult to reconcile all the compiler-specific "stuff" in the cc2540 sample projects.

    So, TI has created a true "lock-in" for the IAR compiler, congratulations guys. (Looks like the lock-in includes Keil, too).

    This is very difficult to excuse. Compare to the very low-cost tools provided by certain other chip mfrs.

    Understood that any toolchain TI selects must have a debugger, but why not get the inexpensive CCDebugger working with Eclipse?

    By requiring that I use either a time-limited product or buy a $3K product, you've kept me from pursuing "just an idea" for a medical device interface.

    There's definite risk in pursuing ideas like these, and $3K makes that risk look high.

    See how that works?

  • 0 in reply to Andy van Tol
    Intellectual 590 points

    the same as above

    TI please do something with this request

     

  • 0 in reply to natanel
    Prodigy 20 points

    Bump.  I'm in the same boat.  TI: there's this little open-source project out there called "Eclipse" :) 

    At $100, the CC2540 dev kit w/ key fob is the ultimate "hobby" kit.  Till you find out the IDE is $3500 a seat.

  • 0 in reply to John Riley
    Guru 31280 points

    I'm with you guys! A free of charge compiler for BLE, Z-Stack, TIMAC, simpliciTI, and the other cool

    stuff from TI that running on chipcon CCs is a must.

  • 0 in reply to Igor Sherer
    Prodigy 10 points

    I would like to support this initiative to ask TI to support the SDCC toolchain or if not else, their own Eclipse based CodeComposer Studio. 

    Why we can't use CodeComposer and CCDebugger to develop for the CC25xx?  It is TI's toolchain after all.

    We would have couple of projects that the CC would be suitable but because of several developers would need the hefty license for the compiler, we probably have to go with an other chip vendor that supports gcc, even if the chip is not optimal.

    Is there anybody from TI reading these posts at all? What is TI planning to do about it?

  • 0 in reply to Zoltan Molnar
    TI__Guru 57865 points

    Hi Zoltan,

    Zoltan Molnar said:
    Is there anybody from TI reading these posts at all?

    Of course we are. We are always looking at things to improve and lately we have been focusing on the SW stack. The input in this thread is very valuable and we are looking at future options. I just don't have an answer at this moment.

    Best Regards

  • 0 in reply to Zoltan Molnar
    Intellectual 785 points

    Eclipse (and hence also CCS) is just an IDE. The issue is the compiler. TI do not have an 8051 compiler to add to CCS.

    The problem is that the 8051 has such a horrid memory architecture so ill-suited to C that gcc does not support it and likely never will. So your options are commercial compiler vendors such as IAR and Keil, or SDCC.

    You may be able to get SDCC to compile the TI-provided code but it won't help you. The outputs produced by SDCC and IAR are not binary compatible (i.e. you can't link SDCC output with IAR libraries), and since TI provides the stack only in the form of binary libraries produced by IAR, you're out of luck.

    If you are doing a hobby project the IAR compiler is probably out of reach. If you are doing a commercial project and the issue is just that the IAR license is expensive, ask them about time-limited rather than perpetual licenses. They will sell you a one-year license for about one third of the cost of a perpetual license. A year is typically enough to complete a project and get it in to production.

    You may ask, if 8051 is so horrid why do people keep designing it in? Because it's cheap. The CC products were designed by small fabless start-up Chipcon and these sorts of companies often reach for "8051.vhdl" when they need a small on-chip MCU because its free. When TI bought them there was lots of talk about replacing the 8051 cores with MSP430 cores. They have largely achieved this on the sub-1GHz products but it seems to be beyond them for the 2.4GHz stuff. I'm guessing it's a process issue.

    These days there is little excuse to design in an 8051 core. ARM Cortex-M3 cores are small and cheap to license. Refuse to design-in chips based on the 8051 and eventually the problem will solve itself.

  • 0 in reply to Matthew Kendall
    Intellectual 370 points

    So, we either need TI to release the source to the BTLE stack, or you guys need to build SDCC libraries for us. Is that too much to ask?

  • 0 in reply to Rick Mann
    Prodigy 180 points

    Very much agree with everyone in this post.  Hobbyists with an idea are the ones who can push BLE integration forward, but this expensive (and clunky IMHO) IDE/compiler is seriously stifling that advancement.

  • 0 in reply to Jay Coggin
    Intellectual 275 points

    Same issu,  Texas please wake up !!!!!

  • 0 in reply to Terje Nilsen
    Prodigy 20 points

    Feeling duped!    Please make it clear on your FRONT PAGE that the SDK for your BLE stack costs thousands of dollars.   I wouldn't have shelled out money for your hardware if I'd read all the fine print about the cost.   

  • 0 in reply to J Lindh
    Prodigy 40 points

    I have a suggestion that might help the current situation with the IAR high cost per seat.  Ti licence an IAR tool that limits development past a certain code size and provide it with the tools. The code size would need to be large enough to compile and build sensor tag project. This would help small developers with your neat platform and result it more product being sold.

    Best Regards

  • 0 in reply to Carl Flatman
    Prodigy 20 points

    IAR has an option of a 4k limit. Is that too smal to be useful?

    mike

  • 0 in reply to Mike Ulmer
    Prodigy 40 points

    Any of the projects provided by TI were too small to be compiled so I would say yes. You would think 4k is a lot of code but bluetooth stack seems to be large

  • 0 in reply to Carl Flatman
    Prodigy 40 points

    I agree with everyone here. Has anyone setup the compiler with Eclipse?

  • 0 in reply to Jonas Willaredt
    Prodigy 20 points

    Forget about cc2540/41. Crap. Rapid development you can afford, better MCU and support for OSX/Linux, even without to pay $4k. Look for nRF51822.

  • 0 in reply to Thorsten Kaiser
    Prodigy 20 points

    Look at Atmel SamR21-xpro. Demo board is $39. Software tools are free. Programmers are $100 or less. They embedded the blue tooth with the processor. 

  • 0
    Prodigy 10 points

    Hey TI, 

    please re-consider supplying SDCC-compiled versions of your BLE-stack blobs.
    Just mark them as unsupported. No one is trying to steal your proprietary code here,
    we just want to be able to compile our code without the need to purchase IAR.

    Cheers,

    maui