ARM Realview Dev.suite

**** This is not an authoritative answer ****

It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and running using MDK!

RVDS is a bare-bones tool chain. In a way comparable to GCC being a
bare-bones tool chain. Both are focussed on target
architecture, not on actual devices. In RVDS you have to write
your own device/board support package. RVDS cleary targets vendor
specific SoCs, not so much off-the-shelf MCUs. It is, of course,
possible to use RVDS for MCU development.

Both, MDK and RVDS sue the same underlying compiler technology.
Generated code is very similar[1] for the same CPU if the same
compiler version is used.

It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and running using MDK!

RVDS supports high end ARM architectures, such as v6 and v7-A/R. This
is turned off for MDK at this point. I am sure that when deemed
strategically useful, that it will be merely a compiler switch to
enable this when rebuilding MDK's version of armcc.

The RealView Debugger supports multi-core debugging. I provides a well
documented system for adding new device/board descriptions. None of
these features are required by most MCU customers.

RVDS uses an IDE based on Eclipse. A nice gimmick is the scatter file
editor with syntax highlighting and a graphical view!

It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and running using MDK!

MDK simulates the actual device, RVD only the core itself[2].

RVDS Pro includes an incredible profiling tool.

RVDS is available for Linux. The Windows version of RVDS comes with a
"make" utility.

Building Linux applications with RVDS is a supported flow.

Did I mention this: It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and
running using MDK!

Regards
Marcus
http://www.doulos.com/arm/

Footnotes:
[1] The only reason I don't say "identical" is that I don't have hard evidence to back this up.

[2] Well, not quite: The simulators in RVDS do include some commodity peripherals (UART, timer) but are not modelling a standard MCU.

**** This is not an authoritative answer ****

It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and running using MDK!

RVDS is a bare-bones tool chain. In a way comparable to GCC being a
bare-bones tool chain. Both are focussed on target
architecture, not on actual devices. In RVDS you have to write
your own device/board support package. RVDS cleary targets vendor
specific SoCs, not so much off-the-shelf MCUs. It is, of course,
possible to use RVDS for MCU development.

Both, MDK and RVDS sue the same underlying compiler technology.
Generated code is very similar[1] for the same CPU if the same
compiler version is used.

It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and running using MDK!

RVDS supports high end ARM architectures, such as v6 and v7-A/R. This
is turned off for MDK at this point. I am sure that when deemed
strategically useful, that it will be merely a compiler switch to
enable this when rebuilding MDK's version of armcc.

The RealView Debugger supports multi-core debugging. I provides a well
documented system for adding new device/board descriptions. None of
these features are required by most MCU customers.

RVDS uses an IDE based on Eclipse. A nice gimmick is the scatter file
editor with syntax highlighting and a graphical view!

It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and running using MDK!

MDK simulates the actual device, RVD only the core itself[2].

RVDS Pro includes an incredible profiling tool.

RVDS is available for Linux. The Windows version of RVDS comes with a
"make" utility.

Building Linux applications with RVDS is a supported flow.

Did I mention this: It is *much* easier to get a standard MCU up and
running using MDK!

Regards
Marcus
http://www.doulos.com/arm/

Footnotes:
[1] The only reason I don't say "identical" is that I don't have hard evidence to back this up.

[2] Well, not quite: The simulators in RVDS do include some commodity peripherals (UART, timer) but are not modelling a standard MCU.