Start development with our Arm-based processors
Our design and development ecosystem can help simplify your design process. Explore design options and find resources for Arm®-based processors to help make it easier for you to get to market.
Investigate & find the right device
Ready to find the right device for your application? We make it easy. Explore your device options and find the resources to start your development journey. Use our product search to identify the right Arm-based processor for you.
Evaluation
We are committed to shortening your time-to-market with our comprehensive development ecosystem. We provide access to modular hardware for expanded system functionality, both broad and application specific software kits, and expert code examples to help you evaluate and determine which device best meets your needs as quickly as possible.
Step 1 of evaluation: select your hardware
Our Arm-based processor portfolio includes a selection of community platforms, starter kits and full-featured evaluation modules (EVMs). Once you've identified the device you would like to evaluate, check out the recommended hardware available for evaluation on our product pages. Each hardware platform offers the ability to fully evaluate and develop, with feature sets tailored to meet your specific design needs. To start your journey, here is a selection of our more popular hardware resources.
Community platforms & starter kits
Start your evaluation with a selection of community platforms and TI starter kits as a cost-effective way to start your evaluation. These platforms enable quick evaluation and include preloaded examples to jumpstart your design process.
BeagleBone® development boards
BeagleBoard.org provides low-cost, fan-less single-board computers based on low-power Texas Instruments processors featuring the Arm Cortex-A series cores, providing all of the expandability of today's desktop machines, without the bulk, expense or noise.
AM437x starter kit
The AM437x starter kit provides a stable and affordable platform to quickly start evaluation of Arm Cortex-A9-based AM437x processors and accelerate development for HMI, industrial and networking applications.
AM335x starter kit
The AM335x starter kit is a stable and affordable platform to quickly start evaluate Arm Cortex-A8 processors in the AM335x family.
Full-featured evaluation modules
Full featured evaluation modules (EVMs) include access to all device features and interfaces to support you from evaluation to production. Our EVMs provide maximum flexibility to enable you to write software without limitations.
When you have identified the device you would like to evaluate, we include all recommended evaluation tools on our product pages. Here are just some of our more popular EVMs:
AM65x evaluation module
The AM65x EVM enables you to immediately start evaluating the Arm Cortex-A53-based AM65x processor family enabling hardware testability and connectivity.
AM572x evaluation module
The AM572x EVM enables you to immediately start evaluating the Arm Cortex-A15-based AM57x processor family and develop software applications with ample hardware testability and connectivity.
DRA821xM evaluation module
The DRA821xM EVM is designed to evaluate the high-speed networking capabilities of the Jacinto™ DRA821x SoC, featuring an Arm Cortex-A72 MPU with auxiliary Arm Cortex-R5F MPUs for time-sensitive tasks.
TDA4x and DRA829x processors evaluation module
The J721EXCP01EVM common processor board supports both the TDA4x and DRA8x SoCs, which leverage a heterogeneous architecture that includes a mix of fixed and floating-point DSP cores and Arm Cortex-A72 cores. This EVM includes basic connectivity to input/output, JTAG and various expansion cards.
DRA74x/DRA75x evaluation module
General-purpose EVM designed to help reduce time-to-market for applications such as infotainment, reconfigurable digital cluster or integrated digital cockpit. With this EVM, you can evaluate a device architecture that includes two Arm Cortex-15s, two Arm Cortex-M4s and two DSPs and more.
TDA3x evaluation module
General-purpose EVM based on the TDA3x processor. The EVM integrates a host of peripherals including parallel and serial multi-camera interfaces, CAN, CAN-FD, gigabit Ethernet PHY and more. Heterogenous architecture includes DSP cores, dual Arm Cortex-M4 processors and an embedded vision engine.
System evaluation using reference designs
Our reference designs provide assistance when designing with Arm®-based processors for specific applications or offer examples for sub-system design. Find one that is right for you.
Step 2 of evaluation: download & set up software
When starting your evaluation, you have access to both our robust software development environment and a cohesive ecosystem of software development kits, along with driver libraries and other resources. All software is available for free from TI and is available for production use – royalty free. These software resources work together to help you validate performance and give you the confidence to identify the best device for your needs.
A processor SDK provides access all components needed for the evaluation of your embedded system, including coming preintegrated with mainline Linux or RTOS kernels for flexibility in your design.
Processor SDK options
Our SDKs provide easy setup and fast out-of-the-box access to software components and are fully tested to work together. Through the evaluation process, you have access to key features to help quickly get your board running, and a strong software foundation enabling you to focus on your application.
Device drivers & OS: Our device drivers and foundational software, including the OS, provide full entitlement of the hardware in an efficient implementation with minimal code size.
Libraries & Middleware: We provide optimized libraries/middleware to support common capabilities and applications. These libraries include ruggedized components like communication stacks, mathematical libraries and algorithms to help create your application.
APIs: Our consistent and well-documented APIs make it easy to get your application code integrated quickly and easily, giving you confidence that your application will work.
Examples & out-of-the-box demos: The SDK establishes a foundation of software components, fully tested to work together, so that you can focus on your application. In addition, integrated development environment (IDE) projects are available in the SDK to help you quickly get your board up and running.
Development
Simplify your development tasks, and accelerate your time-to-market with our proven hardware, software and tools. Everything you need to move forward to production is at your fingertips. We are here to help you navigate the development process and accelerate your embedded system design.
Our comprehensive software ecosystem is designed to simplify and accelerate your embedded system development.
Explore our Arm®-based processor software ecosystem
| Software | Description |
|---|---|
| Software Development Kit (SDK) | SDKs provide all necessary components to start embedded systems development. They are fully tested and integrated, and release quarterly. |
| Code Composer Studio™ IDE | An Eclipse-based IDE that provides a suite of tools to develop and debug embedded applications |
| System configuration tool (SysConfig) | A collection of graphical utilities for configuring pins, peripherals, radios, subsystems and other components, including tools such as the PinMux tool, DDR and Clock Tree tool. |
| Compiler | The Arm C/C++ compiler and assembly language tools support development of applications for TI Arm-based platforms and are included in Code Composer Studio software. |
| UniFlash | A stand-alone tool recommended for programming onboard flash memory for Arm-based processors. |
| Debugging probes and trace tools | Debugging probes enable software development on TI Arm-based processors and are designed to meet different functionality and budget needs. Trace tools allow you to conduct foundational analysis. You can work with select third parties to deliver more extensive trace capabilities. |
Third-party network
To best meet your design needs and accelerate your time-to-market, we work with a variety of third parties to help with everything from software development to hardware design and other production services. The table below represents a portion of our third party partner network. A ful list of third partner partners can be viewed in the links following the table.
| Third party partner | Description | Tool or service type | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Software | Services | |||
| Mentor | Mentor provides embedded software solutions for Linux and the Nucleus RTOS. They also offer development services for embedded software products and compilers. | Global | |||
| Montevista | MontaVista software provides embedded Linux commercialization services. | Global | |||
| Timesys | Timesys provides embedded Linux open source software, security, development tools, and engineering services spanning the embedded software market. | Global | |||
| Wind River | Wind River provides software and services, including theVXWorks RTOS, to help you evolve and modernize your systems. | Global | |||
| Witekio | Witekio has expertise in low-level, middleware and embedded software development. | Global | |||
| Green Hills Software | Green Hills Software has a platform-independent real-time operating systems, INTEGRITY, as well as embedded development solutions that support a broad range of hardware and software platforms. | Global | |||
| QNX | QNX offers software products, including the Neutrino RTOS, as well as professional services to help embedded development. | Global | |||
| eInfoChips | eInfoChips provides product engineering and semiconductor design services. | Global | |||
| Mistral Solutions | Mistral delivers embedded engineering services, including hardware design and software development to aid in embedded product development. | Global | |||
| PHYTEC | PHYTEC is a provider and integrator of system on modules (SOMs). | Global | |||
| Codesys | Codesys provides automation software for engineering control systems. | Global | |||
| Crank Software | Crank Software provides support for 2D and 3D GUI design and development for embedded touchscreens. | Global | |||
| D3 Engineering | D3 Engineering provides embedded systems development for autonomous systems, connected automation and embedded vision. | Global | |||
| Momentum Data Systems (MDS) | MDS provides DSP tools, hardware, software and systems for a wide range of audio, video and signal processing applications. | Global | |||
| Smart Eye | Smart Eye provides eye tracking solutions, including algorithms and software for use in automotive applications. | Global | |||
| Vector | Vector provides a platform of tools and software component and services to developing embedded systems for automotive electronics. | Global | |||
Production
As you finalize your design and prepare to bring it to market, we are committed to delivering the resources you need to ensure you get to market quickly and smoothly. No matter your challenge, we are here to support you through your final development phase.
Longevity
When you select a device, you need confidence in product longevity and supply continuity. We are committed to product longevity and have strategies and policies in place to uphold this commitment.
Sustainability
We are dedicated to designing, manufacturing and bringing to market high-quality integrated circuit products. We are committed to delivering the highest-quality ICs.
Software support
Processor SDKs give you access to the latest code releases, which are important when working in Mainline Linux. We also update our SDKs quarterly with bug fixes.
Training
We have multiple on-demand training options available to help ease development of your Arm-based processor application.