Green Hills Unveils Optimizing Compilers and Development Environment for Siemens' New TriCore CPU.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 19, 1997--Green Hills Software Friday announced the availability of its MULTI Development Environment and family of C, C++, Fortran, and Ada 95 optimizing compilers for Siemens' new TriCore family of CPUs.

TriCore is a high-performance, 32-bit, superscalar RISC CPU that combines a 32-bit microcontroller with a 16-bit digital signal processor (DSP). Featuring a peak performance of 130 MIPS (80 uC MIPS plus 50 DSP MIPS) and four-cycle context switching, TriCore maximizes data throughput by employing a Harvard architecture with three external 32-bit buses, one each for instruction, data, and peripheral access. To maximize code density, TriCore also employs a combination of 16- and 32-bit instructions that enables it to achieve a 30 percent reduction in code size over CPUs that use only 32-bit instructions.

Green Hills has worked closely with Siemens throughout the TriCore design and development process, resulting in a "tools-friendly" microprocessor that provides architectural support for many compiler optimizations and debug interfaces. In support of the TriCore, Green Hills has developed optimizing C and C++ compilers that are well matched to the TriCore architecture and instruction set. Green Hills has also added TriCore support to its MULTI development environment.

MULTI's integrated debug, program build, profiling, and version control facilities greatly simplify the development of complex software for the TriCore. At the same time, Green Hills' optimizing compilers, which are tightly integrated with MULTI, enable designers to take full advantage of the increased code density and execution efficiency provided by TriCore's hybrid 16/32-bit architecture.

Remarked Green Hills vice president of Marketing John Carbone: "The TriCore's use of 16- and 32-bit instructions gives compilers the flexibility needed to maximize both code density and execution efficiency. At the same time, TriCore's high-speed context switching and interrupt processing performance make it ideal for embedded applications. By working closely with Siemens, we have been able to develop optimizing compilers that fully exploit TriCore's unique capabilities."

Added Siemens director of Marketing Naveed Khan: "The TriCore architecture has been designed with an eye towards efficient compilation. Green Hills has proven invaluable in helping us define an instruction set architecture that takes maximum advantage of the state of the art in compiler optimization. In particular, Green Hills worked closely with us to refine TriCore's IEEE-compatible software floating point and arithmetic shift instructions. We also have a high regard for Green Hills' MULTI Development Environment, which will enable TriCore designers to hit the ground running with robust, production code."

The MULTI Development Environment and Green Hills compilers automate every aspect of C, C++, FORTRAN, Pascal and Ada 95 software development, from editing and source-level debugging, to run-time error checking, application profiling, and project/version control. Moreover, MULTI provides a uniform set of capabilities across Windows 95, Windows NT, and Unix host platforms.

The heart of the MULTI environment is an RTOS-aware source-level debugger that features task- and system-level debug capabilities. The debugger provides special support for C++ (including a Class Browser, object display and template debug capability), Ada95 (including a type inheritance browser, source code navigation and cross reference browser, and graphical call tree display) and X-Windows debugging.

MULTI's program builder, editor, and debugger are tightly integrated to offer quick, convenient single- and double-click transfers between debug mode and full source editing. For example, simply clicking on a compiler error message brings the user to the editor, opens the file containing the error, moves the cursor to the line containing the error, and highlights the error.

MULTI gives TriCore programmers a variety of high-level language options, including C, C++, FORTRAN, and Ada. With Green Hills' new Scaleable C/C++ compiler, programmers can 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 a new dialect of C++ known as Embedded C++ (EC++). Optimized for resource-constrained embedded applications, EC++ achieves the efficiency of C while preserving many of the best object-oriented features of C++.

Green Hills' Ada 95 compiler, which includes validated support for the entire Ada95 core language, as well as the Systems Programming and Real-Time Systems Annexes (using ACVC 2.1, the most complete and rigorous test suite available for Ada95 compilers), is tightly integrated with an Ada-optimized version of MULTI known as AdaMULTI. It is also integrated with Wind River Systems' Tornado environment. The compiler implements all of the new enhancements defined in the ANSI/ISO/IEC-8652:1995 Ada 95 specification, including object-oriented programming, hierarchical library organization, type extensions for tagged types and child library units, and new task and synchronization features such as protected types. The compiler also provides specialized VxWorks and POSIX support that enables Ada 95 tasks to be implemented as either VxWorks tasks or POSIX threads (for self-hosted Unix applications).

Code that has been compiled for the TriCore can run on the target hardware in a bare bones mode: under Green Hills' own velOSity and INTEGRITY real-time operating systems; under Wind River Systems' VxWorks operating system; under custom real-time operating systems; under a variety of processor-specific in-circuit emulators (ICEs); and on targets that support BDM/JTAG interfaces.

The MULTI Development Environment for Windows NT or Windows 95, including a C/C++ compiler, costs $5,900 for a single-seat developer's license. The Unix version of MULTI costs $8,900.

More on Green Hills

Incorporated in 1982, Green Hills Software Inc., is a leading supplier of software development tools for 32- and 64-bit embedded systems. Green Hills offers a family of optimizing Ada, C, C++, FORTRAN and Pascal compilers. The company also offers a software development environment known as MULTI that automates the compile- edit-build-debug cycle by integrating advanced facilities such as an RTOS-aware source-level debugger, profiler, program builder and source code control system.

Green Hills' tools support all major advanced microprocessor families and target environments, including instruction set simulators, ROM Monitors, commercial and home grown real-time operating systems (RTOS) and in-circuit emulators (ICE).

Green Hills Software has headquarters in Santa Barbara, Calif.; and has offices in Lexington, Mass.; Raleigh, N.C.; Dallas; Palm Harbor; Fla.; Scotts Valley, Calif.; and Paris. For sales information on Green Hills Software's products, please call 800/500-2580 or e-mail inquiries to [e-mail] .

CONTACT: Green Hills Software Inc.

Tamara Calzi, 805/965-6044

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Davis-Marrin Communications

Ken Marrin, 619/573-0736