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salvo5702
Visitor II
April 17, 2026
Solved

COSMIC compiler license file

  • April 17, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 240 views

Is Cosmic license delivery service still working ?

I submit the request, but I didn't get any answer!

 

Best answer by Philipp Krause

In 2024, I did a comparison of the compilers targeting the STM8: http://www.colecovision.eu/stm8/compilers.shtml

While details will have changed, the basic situation is still be the same: SDCC is competitive in code size and speed, and far ahead in standard compliance.

The current release is 4.5.0, which is considered very stable - work from SDCC 4.4.0 focused on bugfixes with only few new features.

We are currently working on SDCC 4.6.0, which, also thanks to STF (German) and NGI0 (EU) funding, will bring many improvements, in particular in features relevant to safety and security (e.g. improved diagnostics, better handling of many cases that were undefined behavior in older C standards, support for the _Optional qualifier for pointer nullability (looks like via SDCC the STM8 will get support for this feature proposed by ARM even before the STM32 will get it via GCC)).

2 replies

Peter BENSCH
Peter BENSCH
ST Technical Moderator
April 17, 2026

Welcome @salvo5702, to the community!

Responsibility for the compiler’s licence file lies with the manufacturer, COSMIC Software, whom you should contact. As their website hasn’t changed significantly and still appears to be active, but I expect it may well take a few days.

However, the active user @Philipp Krause has been part of this community for a very long time and tirelessly points out that SDCC is indeed a very good alternative, which is also FOSS and requires no registration whatsoever: see, for example:

Perhaps SDCC, possibly in conjunction with one of the available GUIs, could be an alternative for you?

Regards
/Peter

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    Philipp Krause
    Philipp KrauseBest answer
    Senior II
    April 21, 2026

    In 2024, I did a comparison of the compilers targeting the STM8: http://www.colecovision.eu/stm8/compilers.shtml

    While details will have changed, the basic situation is still be the same: SDCC is competitive in code size and speed, and far ahead in standard compliance.

    The current release is 4.5.0, which is considered very stable - work from SDCC 4.4.0 focused on bugfixes with only few new features.

    We are currently working on SDCC 4.6.0, which, also thanks to STF (German) and NGI0 (EU) funding, will bring many improvements, in particular in features relevant to safety and security (e.g. improved diagnostics, better handling of many cases that were undefined behavior in older C standards, support for the _Optional qualifier for pointer nullability (looks like via SDCC the STM8 will get support for this feature proposed by ARM even before the STM32 will get it via GCC)).

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