News & Press

Santa Barbara, CA. October 2, 2002 -- Green Hills Software today announced the industry's most efficient optimizing C/C++ compiler and assembler for the ARM® family of microprocessor cores. The new compiler and assembler, part of version 3.6 of the MULTI® 2000 Integrated Development Environment, greatly simplify the development of fast, compact code for embedded systems utilizing the ARM6™, ARM7™, ARM9™, ARM9E™ and ARM10™ processor families, and the ARM architecture-compliant Intel® StrongARM and XScale™ microarchitectures.

"Version 3.6 of our compiler contains many advanced features that make it easier for designers to develop ultra-fast, compact code under real-world conditions," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing for Green Hills Software. "With this new compiler, we're able to offer ARM developers the smallest code size for their memory-constrained embedded applications."

Green Hills Software's new compiler outperformed ARM's ADS 1.2 compiler on a battery of programs collected by Green Hills Software over its 20 years in the compiler business. These programs include synthetic benchmarks like SPEC, Stanford, Linpack and Dhrystone, but also customer code spanning a variety of real-world embedded applications. On the full set of tests, Green Hills Software's ARM 3.6 compiler generated code that was 17% smaller than that generated by the ADS 1.2 compiler in ARM Mode and 10% smaller in Thumb Mode. Both compilers were set to use optimizations that produce minimum code size.

"Atmel's customers have benefited from Green Hills Software's tools for ARM-based system development," commented Jacko Wilbrink, ARM product manager of Atmel, Inc. "As an embedded ARM component manufacturer, we value such tools and are especially pleased with the performance of this latest release of MULTI. Small code size is essential for our customers' applications, particularly those utilizing integrated flash memory."

In addition to producing smaller object code size, which is valuable in memory-constrained embedded applications like ABS systems, disk drive controllers, and handheld devices, the new compiler is fully compatible with ARM's assembly language, making it easy to use existing library routines and ROM Monitors. All compiler options are available for the user through the MULTI Builder GUI, and as command-line options in makefiles.

The MULTI IDE provides a comprehensive set of capabilities for software development using Windows, Solaris, Linux, or HP/UX host platforms. The MULTI IDE features a graphical program builder, source-level debugger, window-oriented editor, run-time error checker, version control system, performance profiler, optimizing ARM/Thumb® profiler (CodeBalance®), and real-time RTOS EventAnalyzer™. MULTI also features instruction set (SimARM) and cycle-count accurate (the ARMulator® software) simulators that allow programmers to develop and test code on a PC or workstation without the need for target hardware.

The MULTI 2000 debugger is RTOS aware, enabling designers working with popular RTOSes like INTEGRITY® and ThreadX® to debug their applications and monitor OS resources, buffers, queues, and streams at the task level. The MULTI debugger supports freeze-mode and run-mode debugging, which enables programmers to perform debug functions and inspect processor/system resources with either the entire system, or individual tasks halted. The MULTI debugger also supports ARM's Embedded Trace Macrocell™ technology for real-time trace, which enables programmers to acquire target data and program flow information as the program executes without having to halt the processor.

MULTI supports a variety of host/target connectivity and debug options, including the Green Hills Probe™, the ARM Multi-ICE®, the Angel ROM Monitor, Agilent's Emulator Probe, EPI's JEENI® and Macraigor's OCDemon.

About 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 32 and 64-bit 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 or email sales@ghs.com.

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

ARM, ARMulator, Multi-ICE, EmbeddedICE and Thumb are a registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM7, ARM9, ARM9E, ARM10 and Embedded Trace Macrocell, are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM, INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan.