VC33 Development Environment Questions

Oscar Palomino said:

I have a customer that has designed in the VC33 (defense). 

Keep in mind that the VC33 is not considered recommended for new designs, if at all possible your customers would be better off from a TI support perspective to migrate to a newer device, such as C6713. This being said C3x is still usable if they already have it designed in, but there may be support issues that come up which cannot be fixed.

Oscar Palomino said:

1.       Which versions of code composer (studio) will work with the VC33?

The C3x family is not supported by Code Composer Studio (CCS) but rather only by old Code Composer (no studio). The CC software is still available (see here), however it is quite old and not well supported as there is limited expertise available on it these days.

Oscar Palomino said:

2.       If the VC33 uses code composer (not Studio), will code composer run on XP OK?

In theory the latest service pack from the link above shows XP support, I have known some customers to get it to work on XP, however it must be kept in mind that this software is very old and was not originally intended for use on Windows XP, but rather earlier Windows versions (NT, 98, etc.). In general I would expect it to function, though there may be bugs or problems that cannot be fixed.

Oscar Palomino said:

3.       Does the TMS320VC33 University DSK come with Code Composer 4.12?  If not, how does my customer get a hold of this older version of code composer?

The old VC33 University DSK has its own software package, it does not appear to include CC, you can get the University DSK software from here. If they want a copy of Code Composer they can purchase it from the link mentioned above in response to your first question.

Fortunately the customer is considering the SM320VC33-EP  .. this is an active device and is recommended for new design.

Bernie

Our product is upgrading from the TMS320C32 to the vc33.  The upgrade to vc33 is to minimize both hardware and software changes.  The c32 had relocatable vectors, while the vc33 does not.  Any suggestions on how to implement the same function where two different set of interrupt vectors are required after boot up, depending on what load module is active.  Both load modules do have their own initialization code that's executed prior to full operation of that load.

Also what's the pros/cons of going to microprocessor mode versus staying in micrpcomputer/bootloader mode?   Note that our Non Volitile (16 bit wide Flash) occupies external memory at 00000 through 3FFFF in our c32 software and we planned on keeping it the same for the vc33 upgrade.  Our vectors would then be permanently set (as opposed to reloctable) in Flash.

Tom

Note that I am not a C3x expert, the support for these old devices is very limited so there is not much expertise available in general, even though as pointed out above the military version is not yet marked as 'not recommended for new designs'. From a support perspective I would recommend migrating to a device that is newer and better supported such as a C67xx series.

Tom In Clearwater said:

Any suggestions on how to implement the same function where two different set of interrupt vectors are required after boot up, depending on what load module is active.  Both load modules do have their own initialization code that's executed prior to full operation of that load.

It seems to get the operation just as you had it that you would have to have your modules write in a new set of interrupt vectors depending on the particular module needs before enabling the interrupts, this would go in place of the code you have currently that is switching between the relocatable interrupt vector sets. This is probably what I would recommend if you do not change modules very often, a performance penalty at module switching but no loss at module run time.

The alternative would be to rewrite your interrupt vectors to do a switch case depending on the operating module mode, that way you could keep the static interrupt vectors in place if you need to be able to switch between modules often. This method gives you a small penalty for each interrupt since you have the switch case code in the ISR, but has no overhead for switching modules.

Tom In Clearwater said:

Also what's the pros/cons of going to microprocessor mode versus staying in micrpcomputer/bootloader mode?

This is just if you want to use the ROM boot loader or not, it sounds like you were not using it in your C32 implementation, so you can probably get by without it in the C33 implementation as well to keep your architecture similar. Since your vector table needs to be static in flash in this case, you will probably want to have it setup as simple branches into a RAM location that you can manage, from there you can either swap out the contents of the branched to RAM vector set, or put in switch case code depending on the module in use.

Our customer now has a follow-up question ..

My PC lease expiration has come up quickly (not really … I just wasn’t paying attention).  So I need to re-hash what we’ve discussed previously about compatibility.  In summary, though not guaranteed, it was thought that Code Composer (not Studio) would work with Windows XP. 

Now I have new compatibility questions.   64 bit PCs are getting more predominate in our company leases and new leases will likely be coming with Windows 7 soon, as well as the planned migration to Windows 7 from XP this year, for existing leases.

I need to place my new lease order soon, by middle of next week. 

1.      Is the Code Composer (VC33-EP support - not Studio) toolset compatible with a 64 bit PC, whether running either a 32 bit or 64 bit Windows OS?

2.      When we are upgraded, sometime this year, to Windows 7, regardless if the PC is 32 bit or 64 bit, is there any issues known or expected with Windows 7 and CC?

Rick,

They are not going to be able to use the VC33 tools on Win7 64bit.  On a 64bit OS your device drivers have to be 64bit.  Those are not going to exist for any of the old emulators that support VC33.

As far as Code Composer 4.02/4.10 that will not have been tested on Windows 7.  It may be ok.  You would definitely need to run as admin and turn UAC completely off.  I would avoid running CCS from cc_setup as I get problems with Code Composer Studio v3.x when I do that.

Regards,

John