Red Hat and NEC Electronics Demonstrate Significant Performance Improvements with GNU C Compiler for NEC's VR5500 MIPS-Based Platform.Business/Technology Editors Embedded Systems Embedded systems Computer systems that cannot be programmed by the user because they are preprogrammed for a specific task and are buried within the equipment they serve. Conference 2002 SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2002 Red Hat, Inc., (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :RHAT RHAT Red Hat (stock symbol) RHAT Rainwater Harvesting Association of Tanzania RHAT Register Hba Attributes ), the world's premier open source and Linux provider, and NEC (NEC Corporation, Tokyo, www.nec.com, www.necus.com) An electronics conglomerate known in the U.S. for its monitors. In Japan, it had the lion's share of the PC market until the late 1990s (see PC 98). NEC was founded in Tokyo in 1899 as Nippon Electric Company, Ltd. Electronics announced today certified benchmark scores for the Red Hat GNU C (language) GNU C - The extension of C compiled by gcc. compiler for NEC's 400 megahertz One million cycles per second. See MHz. MegaHertz - (MHz) Millions of cycles per second. The unit of frequency used to measure the clock rate of modern digital logic, including microprocessors. (MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. ) VR5500(TM) MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) The execution speed of a computer. For example, .5 MIPS is 500,000 instructions per second; 100 MIPS is a hundred million instructions per second. (R)-based microprocessor. The Red Hat engineering team performed a study of the GNU C compiler created for NEC, using a collection of benchmarks provided by the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC EEMBC EDN Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (Electronic Design News Magazine) ). These benchmarks represent real-world algorithms used in the telecommunications, networking, consumer, office automation and automotive/industrial businesses. The benchmark tests were then repeated and scores were certified by the EEMBC Certification Laboratories (ECL (Emitter-Coupled Logic) A digital circuit composed of bipolar transistors in which the emitter ends are wired together. ECL gates switch faster than TTL gates, but consume more power. See TTL, I2L and bipolar. 1. ). The study identified optimization opportunities for the GNU C compiler for NEC's VR5500 MIPS-based processor. Red Hat worked with NEC to implement the appropriate optimizations. Because the VR5500 processor has dual instruction issue with out-of-order (OOO (1) (Optical in Optical processing Optical out) Refers to network devices that maintain the photonic transmission signal without converting back to electrical signals. Contrast with OEO. See optical switch. (2) (OOo) See OpenOffice.org. ) execution, compiler scheduling optimizations are not as critical to execution efficiency as other dual issue architectures that do not support OOO execution. This allowed compiler optimizations to focus on areas other than scheduling to improve performance. The benchmarks were then conducted after the compiler work was completed, indicating a significant performance increase versus other commercially available MIPS-based C compilers in the market. "The results shown by the Red Hat GNU C compiler indicate the performance capabilities and optimizations of the GNU C compiler targeted at a specific processor architecture," said Markus Levy, president of EEMBC. "These results demonstrate the value of the EEMBC benchmarks in identifying areas of compiler performance improvement and achieving results for specific application areas. It is extremely beneficial to developers, as well as customers, to have a highly optimized C compiler for the NEC superscalar A CPU architecture that allows more than one instruction to be executed in one clock cycle. See pipeline processing. (architecture) superscalar - A superscalar architecture is a uniprocessor that can execute two or more scalar operations in parallel. , out-of-order processor. We look forward to seeing certified EEMBC benchmark scores for the VR5500 processor from other compiler vendors." The most significant increase was seen in the automotive industry benchmark. In automotive, the GNU C compiler was approximately 35 percent faster than its nearest competitor. In the remaining benchmarks, the GNU C compiler was approximately 10 percent faster than its nearest competitor. EEMBC published the complete results at the Embedded Systems Conference on March 13 in San Francisco. "As demand for better-performing compilers continues to grow, our relationship with Red Hat allows us to optimize the GNU C compiler for the NEC VR5500 MIPS-based processor," said Arnold Estep, senior manager for VR Series(TM) processors at NEC Electronics Inc. "Customers using the Red Hat GNU C compiler with the VR5500 device benefit from an optimized compiler for their product development, allowing them to focus on improving applications and achieving a fast time to market." "Submitting these leadership results for our compiler confirms the high performance capabilities of GNU C," said Michael Tiemann, chief technical officer at Red Hat. "The beauty of this announcement is that world-class solutions can now be compiled to run on Red Hat Embedded Linux for the NEC MIPS-based processor. These solutions include set-top boxes, gaming platforms, field automation devices, imaging, telematics and other platforms that can be tethered Attached to a data or power source by wire or fiber. Contrast with untethered. back to a company's infrastructure that is running Red Hat Linux Red Hat Linux, assembled by Red Hat, was a popular, "middle-aged" Linux distribution (not as old as Slackware but older than Ubuntu) upon its discontinuation in 2004.[1] Red Hat Linux 1.0 was released on November 3, 1994. ." Pricing and Availability For more information on pricing and availability of the GNUPro tool suite, call Red Hat at 1-866-273-3428, extension 45300, or visit http://www.redhat.com/software/tools/gnupro/. About Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat is the world's premier open source and Linux provider. Red Hat is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Please visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Gabriel Szulik at Red Hat, (919) 754-3700. About NEC Electronics Inc. NEC Electronics Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., is one of the leading developers, manufacturers and suppliers of semiconductor products in the United States. Committed to meeting customers' cost, performance and time-to-market requirements, the company offers solutions ranging from standard products, including electron components, to system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, as well as customized products for next-generation designs. NEC Electronics also offers customers the benefits of a local manufacturing facility in Roseville, Calif., and the global manufacturing capabilities of its parent company, NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY). For more information about products offered by NEC Electronics Inc., visit the NEC Electronics website at http://www.necel.com. LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. NEC Electronics Inc., VR5500 and VR Series are either trademarks or registered trademarks of NEC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. MIPS is a registered trademark of MIPS Technologies. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Forward-looking statements in this press release are made pursuant to the safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release that are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, management's plans and objectives for future operations, and management's assessment of market factors, constitute forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, reliance upon strategic relationships, management of growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures, the viability of the Internet, and other risks detailed in Red Hat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which may be accessed through the SEC's Web site at http://www.sec.gov. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion