Is IAR software the only option to develop the embedded software for CC2541?

Hi Kevin,

Yes, we only support IAR for CC254x, but we support both IAR and CCS(free) for our newest CC26xx platform. I believe for IAR, you can also get a time limited version for free.

Best wishes

I would suggest you to buy CC2650STK and CC-DEVPACK-DEBUG for BLE study because it is more low power and you can use CCS free for development.

CC2650 Launchpad is another alternative which can use CCS for free.

IAR is a tool used to compile and download firmware code into CC2541.
CCS is doing the same thing. Why CCS cannot be used for CC2541?
The reason I am using CC2541, instead of CC2650 is that CC2541 is much cheaper.

CC254x uses 8051 and CC26xx uses ARM cortex-m3 as its core MCU. CCS doesn't support 8051 compiler.

got it. I google and find that Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) is a open-source C compiler for Intel 8051-compatible microcontrollers. Do you think I can use SDCC, instead of IAR?
thanks

Some of source files are provided in library format in BLE Stack for CC254x so you cannot use SDCC. Unless you get full source code from TI.

You mean the source code for the library in BLE Stack, which is in the format of IAR now?

Yes, it's in the format of IAR now.

get it. thanks.

You are welcome.