LONDON — Texas Instruments is making available on its web-site free trial evaluation kits for its Code Composer Studio v4, a major upgrade to its integrated development environment (IDE) based on the Eclipse open source software framework.

The company says the IDE offers several low cost JTAG options including an XDS100 class emulator and corresponding CCStudio license for less than $100, which provides a low-cost entry point for development and allows users to later upgrade to higher performance debug solutions if necessary.

CCStudio v4 is compatible across multiple processors in TI's embedded portfolio, including microcontrollers, digital signal processors and ARM-based OMAP application processors.

The open source Eclipse framework is quickly becoming the industry standard for IDEs so that developers can leverage the existing Eclipse community and the integration of a wide selection of third party plug-ins to speed troubleshooting, analysis and profiling of embedded designs.

Major benefits of v4 are said to include an improved code development environment that speeds design and troubleshooting with an advanced editor and features such as code completion, code folding, local history of source changes, markers and the ability to associate tasks with source lines; an advanced GUI framework that simplifies data and project management through the creation of perspectives with full customization of menus, toolbars and 'fast views' that enable developers to define the functionality and views appropriate to specific tasks, such as editing or debugging a program across multiple processors; and multi-processor debugging that manages status and information from multiple cores without the confusion that arises when each core requires its own separate debugger.

More than 1200 third-party plug-ins support product development including static code analysis, source code control, modelling and scripting development.

Pricing and licensing information can be downloaded here.