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Joe writes in -
I wanted to let you know about something we feel is a pretty significant open source milestone. Namely that we were able to help get TI to release a free compiler for their c54x DSP. It's especially significant considering they have a big profitable division turning out these proprietary, expensive tools.Free DSP complier available - Link. More photos of a hacked Neuros Alex's open gadget set too...As you know, TI's silicon has often been coveted for its combination of high performance, low power consumption as well as low cost. TI's
silicon powers something like 55% of the world market for cell phones, so any steps they make towards opening devices and allowing independent developers to contribute has a lot of potential significance. Previously, the cost of the tools has been a big impediment for open source hackers. This development would essentially move the cost of developing for some of their devices from $5-10K to $200, obviously well within the range of many makers obviously. As these devices become more powerful and PC like, the concept of "open" devices is becoming more realistic by the day.
Although TI's Code Composer Studio is indeed fairly expensive, note that they include a "free" version of CCS with each DSP Starter Kit, some of which sell for around $300. The DSK version of CCS is somewhat limited in that it doesn't know how to access DSPs by any means other than the port supported by the DSK (e.g. a USB port with JTAG emulation). DSKs ought to appeal to Makers since they have daughterboard connectors and several kinds of daughterboard are available and supported. I'm prototyping a data acquisition system with a 6713 DSK attached to: 5K-6K interface board, Bitec's Ethernet board, TI multichannel A/D boards, and eDSP's HPI ports board (serial/parallel/USB).
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