News & Press

Santa Barbara, CA. December 9, 2002 -- Green Hills Software and Express Logic, the leading suppliers of embedded software solutions, today announced the availability of run-time ThreadX API error checking for the MULTI® debugger. This new first-of-its-kind debugging feature, an enhancement to Green Hills Software's MULTI® integrated development environment (IDE), simplifies the debug of sophisticated multi-threaded applications by alerting developers to API programming errors during run time.

Previously, detection of ThreadX API programming errors was the sole responsibility of the application software. Now, the ThreadX-aware MULTI debugger automatically alerts developers if it detects an API error during run time, immediately halting execution of the offending application code and displaying the exact ThreadX error condition in the debugger's view window. For example, if the application calls the ThreadX tx_event_flags_set service with an invalid event flag group pointer, the MULTI debugger automatically stops execution on the offending call and displays the "invalid group pointer" error message in the view window.

"MULTI's run-time API checking significantly helps ThreadX developers by further automating the debug process," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing for Green Hills Software. "Already the most comprehensive ThreadX aware debug solution on the market today, MULTI, with its new run-time API error checking, raises the bar even further for integrated development environments."

"The MULTI/ThreadX tandem is unsurpassed when it comes to developing and executing sophisticated deeply-embedded real-time applications," said William Lamie, president of Express Logic. "This new feature will further simplify development by automatically detecting API errors, eliminating the need for programmers to provide application code that checks status after every API call."

Green Hills Software's MULTI IDE, together with the company's family of optimizing C, C++, and EC++ compilers, automates all aspects of embedded software development. Featuring an integrated programming editor, source-level debugger, graphical program builder, and run-time error checker, MULTI 2000 also includes a version control system, instruction set simulators, performance profiler, and real-time EventAnalyzer™.

The ThreadX RTOS is the most technically advanced real-time multitasking solution on the market today, optimized for applications that demand minimum footprint, maximum speed and lowest cost. Combining a picokernel design with fast timers and a high-speed preemption-threshold mechanism, ThreadX features a context switching time of less than two microseconds on a 40-MHz PowerPC 860 processor. The ThreadX picokernel is also memory stingy, requiring just 5 kbytes for a minimum footprint.

ThreadX support is integrated directly into MULTI, enabling it to provide comprehensive thread- and kernel-aware debugging. The MULTI source-level debugger can start and stop tasks, and monitor OS resources like buffers, queues, and streams. It can also 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's graphical EventAnalyzer, optimized for the ThreadX real-time operating system, builds on the baseline capabilities of the MULTI debugger, making it easier for programmers to decipher complex real-time interactions. The EventAnalyzer operates like a high-level logic analyzer, displaying all context switches, ThreadX API calls, thread-state changes and interrupts in a time-relative manner using intuitive ICONs. The EventAnalyzer is implemented using in-line macros, which minimize intrusion and make it easier to use the tool in the latter stages of product development, when timing is critical.

MULTI and ThreadX are available from Green Hills Software for a wide range of embedded 32-bit microprocessors, including the ARM, XScale, PowerPC, ColdFire, MIPS, SH, 68K, M-CORE, StarCore, and V800 processor families. Host/target connectivity options include a wide variety of BDM and JTAG OCD (On-Chip Debugging) solutions, Green Hills Software's Probe™ and Slingshot™, Agilent's Emulation Probe, ARM's MultiICE, and various ROM Monitors.

About Express Logic., Inc.

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX RTOS, the high-performance TCP/IP stack NetX™, and the embedded MS-DOS file system FileX™. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please browse to http://www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquires to sales@expresslogic.com.

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, email sales@ghs.com.

Green Hills, MULTI, and INTEGRITY are registered trademarks, and Green Hills Probe, Slingshot, EventAnalyzer, PerformanceAnalyzer, ISIM, Integrate and TotalDeveloper are trademarks of Green Hills Software, Inc. ThreadX is a registered trademark of Express Logic, Inc., NetX and FileX are trademarks of Express Logic, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.