Microcontrollers

Choosing between Keil MDK-Arm and DS-5 Development Studio

Keil MDK-Arm is best suited to commercial, off-the-shelf embedded microcontrollers. DS-5 Development Studio is best suited to Arm application processors and custom SoC designs. See a full comparison table »

For Arm Cortex-M series embedded microcontroller software development, we recommend Keil MDK-Arm.

Try Keil MDK-Arm

Get started with an evaluation of MDK-Arm v5, including a 7-day trial of MDK-Professional.

Try MDK-Arm v5

Keil MDK-Arm has a comprehensive set of features for Cortex-M based microcontrollers, including:

Device Database

MDK-Arm links to a device database containing thousands of MCUs and development boards, providing out-of-the-box example projects and device support packs. Flash programming supports easy upload of software.

µVision Debug and Trace

IDE combining project management, source code editing, debugger and simulator
Long term trace capture, enabling code coverage, logic analyzer and profiling

Middleware

MDK-Professional features middleware such as USB and TCP/IP communication stacks for thousands of microcontrollers, allowing you to develop functioning systems quickly and efficiently.

Complete support for Cortex-M, Cortex-R4, Arm7, and Arm9 devices
Industry-leading Arm C/C++ Compilation Toolchain
Keil RTX deterministic, small footprint real-time operating system (with source code)
Complete GUI Library for embedded systems with graphical user interfaces
ULINKpro enables on-the-fly analysis of running applications and records every executed Cortex-M instruction
CMSIS Cortex Microcontoller Software Interface Standard compliant

Toolchain Compatibility

For projects where both Keil MDK and DS-5 are required, we provide access to Arm Compiler 5, allowing a common C/C++ compilation toolchain to be used for bare-metal software development.