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Tools TI provide for DSP processors

Mohamed Sohal
Expert 1170 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: TMS320C6678, SYSBIOS

Hi all,

Can anyone tell me which are the various tools that TI provide for working with DSP processors (preferrably for TMS320C6678 EVM) other than

  • CCS (and various tools like writers associated with it)
  • MCSDK
  • NDK
  • PDK
All the tools that can be handy may be included.


Regards,
Sohal 
  • Expert 1255 points

    Not an "expert" comment, but as someone who has recently been thinking through how we do development for a C6678:

    I suppose I'd note that the MCSDK comes in SYSBIOS and Linux flavours, which are going to be quite different.  I've not looked at the Linux option at all.

    I'd also identify several different "project build styles":

    1. No CCS:  use GNU make, command line compilers, your editor of choice, and build from the command line or from emacs or whatever.  The C6678 debugger and simulators require either CCS or can be scripted from Javascript in quite powerful ways (DSS), but do not come with comprehensive out-of-the-box command line tools [1].  This approach is much harder to get started on.  However, you can debug and/or simulate in CCS without ever having set up a CCS project.  You can use this tyle this with or without RTSC, SYSBIOS, etc.
    2. CCS without RTSC.  Use the TI low level libraries (eg. CSL) and drive the hardware yourself.  You can still have hand written or CMake makefiles underneath or use CCS to manage the build.  The resulting build and applications are relatively easy to understand but you will be shut out of a lot of the TI packages that require RTSC. 
    3. CCS with RTSC, required for SYSBIOS 6.  Uses the BIOS higher-level components to do most things, both compiler and linker configuration and at runtime. 

    The TI PR machine is keen to tell you about (3) and that's what we're using.  It has lots of nice features and is almost certainly the fastest way to develop software, but also some annoying rough edges and plenty of gaps at the joins between software, hardware and tool documentation.  It's noteworthy that most of the little programs in the BIOS MCSDK/PDK seem to be either (1) or (2), and suggests so me that historically TI engineers have used (1), either from preference or ahead of the availability of CCS tooling.  One feels as an outsider there's a bit of a "dogfood gap" between styles (1) and (3).

    We've seriously considered throwing in the towel with CCS (esp. with CCS 5.0.3, 5.1 seems better) but I'm warming to CCS+RTSC at last.  It is a very powerful collection of stuff once you get it set up right..

    I'd be interested to know which of those styles different people are using "in production".

    [1] I don't count loadti.bat as a comprehensive command line tool in this context.