Code Composer Essentials 3.0 (CCE 3.0) is the most significant upgrade since it’s initial release in late 2004 with a major focus on usability, speed, and reliability. CCE continues to be based on the open-source Eclipse 3.2 universal tool chain which is focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools, and runtimes for building deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. Using an open source framework allows creation of custom plug-ins, leveraging the worldwide community’s contributions, and modifying a development process as desired. CCE 3.0 will support all Flash-based MSP430 devices including the large memory model for MSP430X devices. A free version is available for download which is restriction free for all applications under 16KB of code. This is twice the limit on CCE 2.0 and enables 4x more code than the free IAR KickStart software. The C-code intrinsics, such as the interrupt vector declaration #pragma, have been updated enabling a much wider array of application examples and collateral by using a similar calling convention as IAR Embedded Workbench. All existing code examples and C-based libraries will now work in both IAR and CCE with little to no modifications to the project. Large, more complex projects like the TI Z-Stack or SimpliciTI are in the process of being ported to CCE 3.0. Therefore, starting any development with CCE is a great long term decision. CCE 3.0 also features a brand new TI propriety debugger, replacing the old GDB debugger. This has resulted in significant speed improvements in the often repeated tasks such as single stepping, hitting breakpoints, or downloading code to an MSP430. CCE 3.0 is one of the greatest values available for MSP430 code development with a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool chain to get an application from idea to production. For larger teams, volume licensing is available by contacting TI.