CCSv6 Changes

Code Composer Studio v6 looks very similar to v5 but in fact there are quite a few changes. CCSv6 uses Eclipse 4.x, whereas CCSv5 was based on the Eclipse 3.x stream We did not move CCS to the Eclipse 4.x stream right away but instead chose to wait until 4.x had been out for a while and had matured.

App Center

The App Center is a major change in CCSv6. The purpose of the CCS App Center is to make customers aware of additional software that is available and then help them obtain it. The reality is that customers need far more than just CCS to start meaningful development. Packages such as MSP430Ware, controlSUITE and TivaWare are essential to starting development and are all available via the App Center. Other packages like TI-RTOS, GCC for MSP430, Linux Development Tools and GUI Composer are also available. To prevent customers from being overwhelmed by content the App Center will display only the packages that are relevant to the device families that were selected during CCS installation.

A nice side effect of the App Center is that the initial CCS installation size has been significantly reduced.

Getting Started

The reality is we have all different kinds of customers, ranging from those who are comfortable with large scale software development to those who just need to write a small amount of code for a very simple application. CCS has the challenge of supporting that full range of users and historically, it can be a bit overwhelming for those accustomed to something simple. There are a couple of key changes in CCSv6 to help with this. The Getting Started View, which is open by default when you first launch CCS, provides customers with fast access to many of the common tasks they would want to perform when first starting to use a new environment, such as creating a new project, browsing examples and visiting the App Center. There are links to the support forums, YouTube videos, training material and the wiki. Prominently displayed in the center of the screen is a video that walks customers through the basics of using the CCS environment. It also gives customers the option of switching to “Simple Mode”.

Simple Mode

Simple mode strips down the CCS user interface to a more basic set of functionality with a reduced number of buttons, menu items and views open. For those of you familiar with CCS it also does not switch perspectives when launching the debugger. Everything is handled from within a single perspective. Simple mode is something that is recommended for Energia users migrating to CCS. Did I mention that v6 supports importing Energia sketches? Well it does! Simple mode is also recommended for those picking up a LaunchPad for the first time.

Simulation

Texas Instruments is moving away from providing simulators and instead is focusing on providing low cost development boards. As a result, you will not see any simulators.

C54x Support Removed

C54x is not supported in CCSv6. CCSv5.5 is the last CCS version to support C54x.

Migration Considerations

TI-RTOS
If you are migrating a project that uses TI-RTOS you will need to update the TI-RTOS version. CCS will automatically try to use the newer TI-RTOS if you have installed it from App Center however you will get build errors as TI-RTOS has version numbers in some if its paths. If you explicitly change the project to use the newer version it will resolve these errors.

Grace
If you are a Grace user please make sure to install the latest version of Grace from the App Center. The older Grace 2 is not compatible with CCSv6.

SYS/BIOS Real-Time Analysis
RTDX based real-time analysis is not supported in CCSv6. Stop mode analysis is supported as is sending the data via UART.

CDT

• Code Analysis : External tool based checkers
• Build console line wrapping
• Makefile editor
• Enhanced Expressions ( ability to auto add multiple expressions using Regular Expressions)
• Breakpoint filtering (only show breakpoints for active debug context)
  

Juno
http://help.eclipse.org/juno/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.user%2FwhatsNew%2Fplatform_whatsnew.html

Kepler
http://help.eclipse.org/kepler/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.isv%2FwhatsNew%2Fplatform_isv_whatsnew.html

Eclipse

• Global Search bar (search all menus/views/toolbars)
• Flexible view layout (You can now stack views and editors together by default. For example a view that requires a large working area can be stacked in the editor area to provide more space. )
• Detached editors (Editors can now be detached into their own windows)
• The Delete Resources dialog now shows the location of projects to be deleted on the file system:
• Global Debug Toolbar in main toolbar area.
• Detached views
• Open resource dialog enhancements
• Search enhancements (Whole word, Last used page)
• Shared Install changes (i.e. helps manage install as root run as a user scenarios)
• Eclipse 4.2 change list

http://help.eclipse.org/juno/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.user%2FwhatsNew%2Fplatform_whatsnew.html

• Eclipse 4.3 change list

http://help.eclipse.org/kepler/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.isv%2FwhatsNew%2Fplatform_isv_whatsnew.html

Energia Sketch Support

• Import Energia sketches (i.e. .ino files) into CCS. To learn how, follow instructions on the Highlight Section of the Welcome page of CCS.
• It requires Energia to be installed and available as CCS uses Energia core library & framework source code as well as tool chain including compiler/linker (i.e. mspgcc). 
• Two CCS projects will be created. First project contains Energia framework files and it is a library project. Second main project contains .ino file converted to .cpp. 
• Energia perspective can be enabled when importing Energia sketch per instructions on the Welcome page of CCS or via Windows > Open Perspective > Other > CCS Energia.
• CCS debug features may then be used to step through main project and framework source code, examine variables and use Terminal View. 

GCC / MSP430 support

• Support for GCC v4.8 for MSP430.
• Allows you to compile, build, and debug GCC-based projects.
• New EnergyTrace tool profiling application's energy consumption, monitoring internal device states and determining execution hotspots.
• For further information on GCC usage on MSP430, please see additional instructions.

Trace Analyzer Improvements

• ITM
  • Interrupt names displayed in the interrupt profiler
  • Data reads and writes separately displayed in data variable trace
• Code Coverage for Optimized code
  • All code coverage results are now based on instruction executed. This enable coverage for optimized code
  • Coverage results are provided for Instruction, Source Line, Function and File
• Context Aware Inclusive Function Profiler
  • Added inclusive function profiling to the profiler (exclusive profiling already supported)
  • Support BIOS context awareness in Function Profiler to provide accurate inclusive function profiling
  • Included per-call function profiling (i.e. result for each instance of execution)
  • Detail view showing profile results based on caller and callee
• New STM use-case for Memory Transaction Logging

RTOS and System Analyzer Improvements

• Minimal footprint logger (loggerMin)
• Improve performance of all loggers
• Improve usability for configuring target application instrumentation
• Validate target configuration and provide feedback in Analyzer launch dialog

Hex Utility Integration

In the past you could enable running the hex utility as part of your build by selecting from a couple of pre-defined post build steps. Now with v6 the Hex utility is treated as a proper build tool and you can enable it and select from all of its options with in the project options dialog.