Green Hills Software's ThreadX Real-Time Operating System Selected For BFGoodrich's Radiation Hardened Processor.

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2001

New Processor Slated For Use In International Space Station Airforce

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Green Hills Software today announced that its ThreadX(R) real-time operating system (RTOS) and MULTI(R) 2000 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) have been selected by BFGoodrich's Aerospace, Space Flight Systems division for use with its new microRAD radiation-hardened RISC processor.

The new processor, which features fully redundant logic circuitry, is slated for use in a variety of in-flight space applications.

The first deployment for microRAD will be the International Space Station, where the processor will be used in the Express Pallet Assembly, which is used outside of the space station to host autonomous experiments. MicroRAD will also be used by the Airforce Research Laboratory as a network node controller, and by the Applied Physics Laboratory for instrument control in an interplanetary exploration application.

"We are extremely pleased that BFGoodrich has selected the ThreadX RTOS and MULTI IDE for its new rad-hard processor," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software. "ThreadX is ideal for mission critical aerospace applications that require ultra-reliable, high-speed context switching, interrupt processing with a minimal memory footprint. And MULTI provides a turnkey development environment that makes it easy to develop bulletproof code that takes full advantage of the microRAD's high-speed processing capabilities."

"MicroRAD furthers BFGoodrich's position as a leader in applied engineering for in-flight space data and control electronics," said Andrew Keyser, marketing manager for Space Flight Systems. "The royalty-free ThreadX RTOS and MULTI IDE enable us to provide a turnkey development and target environment that maximizes programmer productivity and reliability at an affordable price. MULTI and ThreadX also enable microRAD users to take full advantage of microRAD's advanced JTAG debug facilities, which further enhance programmer productivity."

MicroRAD is a high-performance, fault-tolerant 32-bit RISC processor optimized for high-reliability in-flight space data and control electronics. Featuring fully-redundant instructions and memory (EDAC or majority voted), microRAD provides an IEEE 754-compatible floating point unit, special NSA instructions, 8 kbytes of unified instruction/data cache, and an integrated MMU and DMA controller. MicroRAD also features a novel JTAG interface that enables designers to examine registers and set breakpoints during program execution without slowing the processor.

ThreadX is the most technically advanced real-time multitasking solution on the market today. Utilizing a picokernel(TM) design with fast timers and a high-speed preemption-threshold mechanism, ThreadX delivers sub-microsecond context switching and occupies just five kbytes for a minimum footprint. ThreadX also features a simple, intuitive API with low-overhead services that make it easy and efficient to port code originally developed for competitive RTOSs. ThreadX is available royalty free with source code.

The MULTI 2000 IDE, together with Green Hills' family of optimizing C, C++, and EC++ compilers, automates all aspects of software development for the microRAD processor. Available for Windows and Unix host platforms, the MULTI IDE features a window-oriented editor, source-level debugger, graphical program builder, run-time error checker, version control system, performance profiler, and real-time RTOS EventAnalyzer(TM). MULTI also features an instruction set simulator that allows programmers to develop and test their microRAD code on a PC or workstation without the need for the target hardware.

The heart of the MULTI environment is its source-level debugger, which features incremental debug capability and supports both process- and system-level debug. The debugger provides a separate window for each process, supports mixed assembly and high-level language formats, includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator, and provides special support for C++ (such as a Class Browser, object display and template debug capability) and X-Windows debugging.

ThreadX support is integrated directly into the MULTI IDE, enabling it to provide comprehensive task- and kernel-aware debugging. The ThreadX-aware MULTI IDE can display multiple tasks ("threads") graphically, including the thread roster, system objects, stack usage, semaphore usage and status, and a variety of other thread- and system-specific information.

MULTI 2000's EventAnalyzer builds on the debugger's real-time capabilities, graphically displaying system and application events on an expandable timeline in real time. Operating like a high-level logic analyzer, the EventAnalyzer GUI displays all context switches, ThreadX API calls, and interrupts in a time-relative manner using intuitive icons.

The MULTI 2000 IDE features the industry's most advanced MicroRAD optimizing compiler. The scaleable C/C++ compiler lets programmers use switch options to select any subset of C++ they want, from bare bones C, to full-blown ANSI/ISO C++. The compiler also supports Embedded C++ (EC++), a dialect of C++ optimized for resource-constrained embedded applications that achieves the efficiency of C while preserving many of the best object-oriented features of C++.

Green Hills C/C++ compiler takes full advantage of the MicroRAD's 16-bit architecture extensions. To help embedded systems programmers maximize performance and efficiency and make size/speed tradeoffs, MULTI 2000 provides a run-time execution profiler known as CodeBalance(TM). The profiler lets users see the code size and run time for each function as compiled using 16- or 32-bit instructions. Then, based on user-supplied size and speed constraints, the profiler outputs a set of command line directives to the compiler that specify how the source code should be partitioned into 16- and 32-bit segments to achieve the desired result.

More On Green Hills Software

Incorporated in 1982, Green Hills Software Inc. is a leading supplier of royalty-free real-time operating systems and software development tools for 32- and 64-bit embedded systems. Green Hills' royalty-free ThreadX(R) and INTEGRITY(TM) real-time operating systems, fully integrated with its market leading compilers and MULTI(R) integrated development environment, provide a total development and run-time solution that addresses both deeply embedded and high-reliability applications. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara with international headquarters in the United Kingdom. For more information on Green Hills Software products, call 805/965-6044 or email inquiries to [e-mail]. http://www.ghs.com.