News & Press

Santa Barbara, CA. May 15, 2002 -- Green Hills Software today announced the availability of its new MULTI® 3.5 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and enhanced optimizing compilers for cores based on MIPS Technologies' MIPS32™ and MIPS64™ architectures. This includes all MIPS32 cores (4Kp™, 4Km™, 4Kc™, 4KSc™, 4KEc™, 4KEm™, 4KEp™) and all MIPS64 cores (5Kc™, 5Kf™, 20Kc™). MULTI 3.5 also supports processors based on the MIPS® R3000®, R4000®, R5000®, and RM7000® architectures.

In November, Green Hills and MIPS Technologies announced their partnership to jointly develop a "Best In Class" application development environment for MIPS-based™ embedded products. Since then, the two companies have collaborated to produce an optimized version of MULTI 3.5 for MIPS processors.

"MIPS processors offer the highest performance in the market," said Brad Holtzinger, director of system solutions at MIPS Technologies, Inc. "Green Hills Software's MULTI IDE is the most complete environment for MIPS-based embedded development. MULTI's advanced C and C++ compilers also deliver the best optimized code for our customers' embedded applications."

The newest version of MULTI 3.5 for MIPS provides several key updates, including debugger support for MIPS' 20Kc core, compiler performance that beats the industry's top performers, and support for the 4KSc processor commonly used for smart card applications.

The MULTI IDE, together with Green Hills' family of optimizing C, C++, EC++, FORTRAN and Ada95 compilers, automates all aspects of embedded software development for MIPS processors, including multi-core systems. Featuring a window-oriented editor, source-level debugger, graphical program builder, and run-time error checker, MULTI also includes a version control system, performance profiler, speed/size optimizing profiler (CodeBalance®), and real-time EventAnalyzer™.

Newly integrated into MULTI 3.5 is MIPSsim™, an instruction and cycle-accurate simulator from MIPS Technologies that lets programmers develop and accurately test and benchmark their MIPS code on a PC or workstation without the need for target hardware. MULTI 3.5 also includes support for other key MIPS core specific features like MIPS16e™ code compression, COP2 (co-processor interface) and MIPS-3D™ extension (additional instruction set for graphics and multimedia).

"MIPS Technologies' 32-bit and 64-bit processors are the most powerful licensable cores available for embedded applications, and developers using those processors demand the best development tools available. The MULTI IDE has emerged as the best embedded development environment for MIPS Technologies' 32-bit and 64-bit processors," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software. "No embedded IDE is easier to use, and no IDE for MIPS processors provides optimizing compilers that can match our performance and efficiency."

MULTI's enhanced GUI greatly simplifies the creation of new projects and the configuration of host/target connections. The project builder lets programmers recompile their applications from within the editor if they encounter a compilation error during the build process. The target connection wizard makes it easy to define the debug connection between the host debugger and embedded target system. Through the wizard, users can select the target processor, the type of target connection (i.e., simulator, ICE, emulation probe, ROM monitor, on-chip debug), and the physical connection media (Ethernet, USB, or RS-232C, for example). They can also specify the speed of the target connection and the data format (big Endian vs little Endian).

MULTI's source-level debugger supports both process and system-level debug, includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator, and supports mixed assembly and high-level language formats. The MULTI debugger also features incremental debug capability, a graphical memory viewer, and specialized support for C++, including an object oriented class browser, namespace support, and C++ function navigation.

The MULTI debugger is fully RTOS aware, which enables designers working with popular RTOSes to debug, monitor and tune their applications at the task level. MULTI users can simultaneously debug multiple tasks across multiple address spaces, whether those processes reside on a single processor, or are distributed across multiple processors. They can also set process-specific and address-space-wide breakpoints, and monitor/record I/O and interprocess communications. They can also perform execution profiling at the process, address space, or system level to precisely pinpoint performance bottlenecks.

MULTI's real-time event analyzer (EventAnalyzer™) enhances real-time visibility by enabling programmers to log and monitor system and application events in real time without disrupting program execution. Operating like a high-level logic analyzer, the EventAnalyzer displays all RTOS context switches, API calls, and interrupts in a time-relative manner using intuitive ICONs. The EventAnalyzer is available for use with Green Hills Software's INTEGRITY® real-time operating system, and also with ThreadX. It can be adapted for use with other commercial or proprietary real-time operating systems.

MULTI is available for major 32-bit and 64-bit RISC and CISC CPUs, as well as a number of popular DSPs. MULTI supports a variety of host/target connectivity options, including BDM and JTAG OCD (On-Chip Debugging) solutions, EST's visionICE, the FS2 In-Target System Analyzer, and various ROM Monitors. MULTI also supports the Green Hills Probe™, the industry's fastest and most intelligent hardware debug probe for 32-bit, 64-bit, and multiprocessor SoC embedded systems.

More on Green Hills Software, Inc.

Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software Inc. is the technology leader for real-time operating systems and software development tools for embedded systems. Green Hills Software's royalty-free INTEGRITY® real-time operating system and the ThreadX real-time operating system, fully integrated with its market leading compilers and MULTI® Integrated Development Environment, provide a total development and run-time solution that addresses both deeply embedded and maximum-reliability applications.

Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with European headquarters in the United Kingdom. For more information on Green Hills Software products, call 805-965-6044, email sales@ghs.com or visit us on the web at www.ghs.com

Green Hills Software, the Green Hills Software logo, and MULTI are registered trademarks, and INTEGRITY, EventAnalyzer, Integrate and the Green Hills Probe are trademarks of Green Hills Software Inc.
 
All other trademarks (registered or otherwise) are the property of their respective companies.