With this version of IDA we publish the decompiler intermediate language: the microcode. We were planning to do it since very long time but the microcode was constantly evolving, we could not do it. After ten years of evolution it looks mature and ready to be published. We believe that it will permit our users to implement much more powerful and higher level analysis algorithms than before. In the future we plan to use the microcode in IDA too: if the decompiler is present, the analysis will be improved automatically.

Second, we improved the debugger module API in IDA v7.1. While the rest of the API was modernized in v7.0, we had no time to handle the debugger API. Now it is done, and we have new shiny calls (and got rid of the legacy definitions). While at it, we also improved the speed of the binary search and added support for named threads. Unfortunately, the change of the API means that third party debugger plugins need to be ported to IDA v7.1. We prepared a short porting guide for that, please see: here.

We also improved our DEX loader to handle multidex android packages. They are becoming more and more popular, and this shortcoming was becoming really limiting. Please pay attention to the segments HEADER2, TYPES2, METHODS2, etc.

We removed two debugger modules with this release: WinCE and Symbian. We haven’t heard any feedback about them since ages and nobody voiced against it when we polled our users on our forum, so we decided to let the obsolete stuff to disappear.