Arm Development Studio

Arm Development Studio is the most comprehensive embedded C/C++ dedicated software development solution. It is used for validation of SoC debug through emulation, simulation, FPGA, and silicon bring-up design and verification stages. It has the earliest support for all Arm processors and interconnects.

Before you begin

Arm Development Studio can be installed on Windows and Linux hosts.

Full host platform requirements are given in the Getting Started Guide .

Download installer packages

The installer will depend on the edition of Development Studio that you are entitled to.

Gold, Silver, and Bronze editions are one installer, with available features defined by the license. The version is denoted by year.index, where index is a number (for example 2023.0). You can also generate an Evaluation license from this installation (Help > Arm License Manager), with capabilities broadly similar to the Gold Edition.

You can download the Development Studio installer from the Product Download Hub .

Development Studio Platinum Edition has its own installation package. The version is denoted by year.index, where index is a letter (for example 2023.a). Platinum Edition is only available to certain Arm licensees.

For more information about the Product Download Hub, refer to the Product Download Hub installation guide .

Install Arm Development Studio

Windows

Unzip the downloaded installation archive.

It is easiest to simply double-click the installation wizard (armds-<version>.exe), and follow on-screen instructions.

To install silently from the command line, use similar to the following:

    

        
        
            msiexec /i DS000-BN-00000-r23p0-00rel0\data\armds-2023.0.msi EULA=1 SKIP_DRIVERS=1 /qn
        
    

Full installation instructions are provided in the Windows section of the Arm Development Studio Getting Started Guide .

Linux

Extract the downloaded package:

    

        
        
            tar -xf DS000-BN-00001-r23p0-00rel0.tgz
cd DS000-BN-00001-r23p0-00rel0
        
    

To install silently from the command line, use similar to the following.

    

        
        
            sudo ./armds-2023.0.sh --i-agree-to-the-contained-eula --no-interactive -f -q
        
    

Full installation instructions are provided in the Linux section of the Arm Development Studio Getting Started Guide .

Configure command line

Windows

You will see Arm DS <version> Command Prompt installed. This configures all necessary environment variables for use with the tools. You can select an appropriate toolchain with:

    

        
        
            select_toolchain
        
    

or set a default version with:

    

        
        
            select_default_toolchain
        
    

Linux

Navigate to bin directory of your install, for example:

    

        
        
            cd /opt/arm/developmentstudio-2023.0/bin
        
    

Use suite_exec to start an appropriate command prompt, for example:

    

        
        
            ./suite_exec --toolchain "Arm Compiler for Embedded 6" bash
        
    

To remove the need for the --toolchain option, first run:

    

        
        
            ./select_default_toolchain
        
    

and select the desired toolchain. You can then configure with simply:

    

        
        
            ./suite_exec bash
        
    

Arm Development Studio IDE

Arm Development Studio is provided with a fully featured Eclipse based IDE and integrated debugger.

Launch the IDE from your desktop, or from the above prompt using:

    

        
        
            ./armds_ide
        
    

Set up the product license

Arm Development Studio is license managed. When you launch the IDE for the first time, you should be prompted to set up your license and select the Edition. You can return to this view from Help > Arm License Manager.

A free 30 day evaluation license for Arm Development Studio is also available. You can generate this in Arm License Manager. Click on Add, and follow instructions therein to obtain the evaluation license (requires Arm login).

Alternative license setup instructions are available in the Arm Licensing install guide .

Get started

To verify everything is working OK, run the compiler from your command prompt:

    

        
        
            armclang --version
        
    

You should now be ready to use Arm Development Studio. See the Get started with Arm Development Studio learning path for more information.