The price of CodeWarrior

[rayhall]

Some years ago I bought the Standard version of CodeWarrior Development Studio for HCS12(X) Microcontrollers for $1000. After one year the software stopped working. I complained...and was told I have to pay another $1000 for it to work for one more year.  I was not happy, as in this first year I was still learning the Freescale S12X, and had not developed any finished working products.  There was no way I was going to waste another $1000. I installed the free version and have been using it for about two years. In this time I finished two products.

I am self taught and a use Freescale products for my own projects used on my cars. I have also developed one product for sale. To date I have not recovered the cost of making the PCB and components, let alone the wasted  $1000.

I now find my latest project exceeds the 512 byte XGate limit. I have just looked at the prices to buy a licensed version of CodeWarrior and I have to spend $2500 to get a version that will keep working after twelve months. This is a big investment for me, and I am struggling with the problem.

I have some questions and observations.

1. Are sales of Freescale hardware so bad that you have to make money selling software development tools.  

2. Why is the CodeWarrior Development Studio not free. Look at Atmel Studio 6, it is free. They still manage to make money.

3. Is the reason CodeWarrior not free because of price fixing to protect third party IDE developers.

4. There has not been an update for CodeWarrior Development Studio for HCS12(X) for a long time. Where is all the money being spent.

  I have asked a few times that the Development Studio for HCS12(X)  have the limits lifted so people like me who are not some big corporation can use your products. To me it seems Freescale only wants to attract  big OEM's and not the small developer.

How about lowering prices for the Standard version or making the free version more useful.

Ray.

[trytohelp]

Hello Ray,

The pricing and packaging structure for Codewarrior Tool is the same for long time (introduced in 2006 I think).

There are 4 Suites:

    - Special Edition Free of charge (limited code size),

    - Basic Suite (compiler upgrade),

    - Standard Suite (unlimited C code and debug),

    - Professional Suite (unlimited C/C++ code and Debug + RTOS).

Each Suite can be order for annual subscription or permanent/perpetual.

For details please have a look to the link:

    Suite Purchasing Model Options|NXP

What is included in each suite ?

The doc "http://cache.nxp.com/files/soft_dev_tools/doc/fact_sheet/950-00437.pdf " will give you all information.

To resume for CW for HC12 V5.x,  4 suites are available.

Special Edition:

• CodeWarrior IDE
• Unlimited assembler
• C compiler and C source-level debugger – code and data size restricted to 32KB
• C compiler and C source-level debugger for NXP’s XGATE module (512 bytes of code)
• Integrated Flash programmer
• Device Initialization tool
• Processor Expert™ with Basic Components

Basic Suite:

• CodeWarrior IDE
• Unlimited assembler
• C compiler and C source-level debugger – code and data size restricted to 64KB
• C compiler and C source-level debugger for our XGATE module - code and data size restricted to 512 bytes
• Integrated Flash programmer
• Device Initialization tool
• Processor Expert™ with Basic Components

Standard Suite:

• CodeWarrior IDE
• Unlimited assembler
• Unlimited C Compiler and C source-level debugger for HCS12, HCS12X and XGATE modules
• Integrated Flash programmer
• Device Initialization tool
• Processor Expert™ with Basic Components

Professional Suite:

• CodeWarrior IDE
• Unlimited assembler
• Unlimited C/C++/EC++/cC++ Compiler and Debugger for HCS12(X) derivatives and XGATE module
• Integrated Flash programmer
• Device Initialization tool
• Processor Expert™ with Basic & Advanced Components
• Processor Expert™ Component Wizard
• OSEK kernel awareness
• Code coverage
• Profile analysis
• PC-lint plug-in

A Suite is not limited to a product only but for several products/architectures.

With a Basic suite you will have access to:

    - CodeWarrior for Coldfire (classic),

    - CodeWarrior for ColdFire Linux Application (classic - Windows/Linux OS),

    - CodeWarrior for DSC56800 (classic),

    - Codewarrior for MCU V6.x (classic - HCs08 & Coldfire V1),

    - CodeWarrior for MCU V10.x (eclipse),

    - CodeWarrior for HC12 (classic),

    - ...

This is the same for Standard Suite .

The Professional Suite gives you access to all CodeWarrior Development Tools products.

If the Standard suite is the version you need for your HCS12X development tool, the permanent/perpetual registration sold at $2495 will allow you to use

CW for HC12 V5.x development tool and several other tools (from HCs08 to StarCore) without time limitation.

By this way you can use the same registration for different projects using different NXP(Freescale) devices for the time you want in case of Permanent/Perpetual type.

You just need to download the license files for all products listed under your registration before the registration end date will expire.

The end date is not the end date of the license file but the end date of maintenance (access to new version for free) which is 12 months.

Regards

Have a great day,
Pascal
NXP Technical Support

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[rayhall]

Hello Pascal,

Thank you for the reply. But it does not address my questions.

I will ask another....

Why is S32 Design Studio free and Codewarrior is not.

Ray.

[trytohelp]

Hi Ray,

Why is it not free ?

    This is a marketing decision - business model.

Most of the tools are fully company proprietary and so not free of charge.

It's really the case for all classic products (using CodeWarrior IDE) and CW for MCU V10.x, PA V10.x,  SC V10.x, ...

In this case, most of the time,we offer a Special Edition for free and higher versions can be purchased (Basic, Standard and Professional).

Good example is for HC12.

All tools included in CW for HC12 V5.x were designed by NXP(Freescale).

It's the case of Compiler, Assembler, linker, debugger, IDE, Processor Expert, ...

When I started in 1999, the HC12 product  (similar to Professional suite) was sold around $5000.

The Special Edition -free of charge was introduced between 2003-2006 (don't remember exactly when).

Today for the same price $5000 you will have access to all (excepted some specific lib/rtos) CodeWarrior Development tools.

2 years ago the KDS (Kinetis Development Studio) was launched.

This version is "fully" free of charge and dedicated to Kinetis devices.

However this tool is using GCC build tool chain under Eclipse.

The S32 will be similar to KDS.

It will be based on GCC/Eclipse and will be free of charge.

Third party will propose advanced feature as other build tool chain than gcc.

Now if you really need a free version for HC12 product, you can have a look on Oliver Thamm's HC12 Web

For HCS12 it was available but not sure if Xgate was supported.

In CodeWarrior, only the size of C/C++ code size is limited.

This includes your source application and the libraries.

All parts of code written in assembly are unlimited.

Have a great day,
Pascal
NXP Technical Support

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[rayhall]

Pascal,

I am using the free version of CodeWarrior Development Studio for HCS12(X), It has a 512 byte limit for XGate. If I pay $1000 for the basic version I get the same 512 byte limit. I have no choice buy to spend $2500 to get the standard version. Why does the basic version not have a bigger limit. Sometting like 1K would make sence.

Can a pay a little more for the basic version and get a 1k limit ?

Ray.

[trytohelp]

Hi Ray,

Please can you submit your question to our email system ?

It seems your account is not existing in our new system.

After the merge of Freescale and NXP, technical support cases are answered in a different system.

To submit your case into the new system, please follow below steps:

  1) Go to http://www.nxp.com/support/sales-and-support:SUPPORTHOME.

  2) On the bottom of the page under Submit New Issues, click Hardware & Software.

  3) Register with your business email to access NXP technical online support.

  4) A verification email will be sent to your account. Click the link embedded in that email to verify your access.

  5) On the NXP online support page, select Contact Support from the top menu and click “submit a new case” to start the process.

Have a great day,
Pascal
NXP Technical Support

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[trytohelp]

Hi Ray,

The Basic suite includes:

     - C compiler and C source-level debugger code and data size restricted to 64 KB

     - C compiler and C source-level debugger for NXPs XGATE module - code and data size restricted to 512 bytes

The Standard suite includes:

     - Unlimited C Compiler and C source-level debugger for HCS12, HCS12X and XGATE modules

Unfortunately I can not generate a license file allowing 1k of code for Xgate.

I will create a Case for this question as I need to check with the Sales team.

You will receive an email soon but I don't think I could propose you something else.

Have a great day,
Pascal
NXP Technical Support

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