Santa Barbara, CA, March 13, 2000 - Green Hills Software today announced a new Technology Development and Cooperative Marketing agreement with MIPS Technologies, Inc. Per the agreement, Green Hills will port its MULTI 2000 Integrated Development Environment and Optimizing Compilers to MIPS' new MIPS32™ 4Kc™ (code named Jade) and MIPS64™ 5Kc™ (code named Opal) 32- and 64-bit processor cores. MIPS, in turn, will introduce Green Hills as "MIPS Technologies preferred tools provider," giving Green Hills a leg up with new MIPS Technologies core prospects.

"The MIPS® processor architecture has always been a key component of our embedded strategy," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills. "Our compilers and development environment have been optimized to take full advantage of the MIPS processor architecture's superior mix of high performance, low power consumption, and reduced memory usage. We're extremely pleased to have been selected as MIPS Technologies' preferred tools supplier for the MIPS32 4K and MIPS64 5K architectures. This raises the bar for high-performance, low-power embedded computing."

"Easy-to-use integrated development environments are the key to maximizing productivity for the large programming teams that work on today's complex embedded software projects," said Brian Knowles, vice president of marketing for MIPS Technologies, Inc. "Efficient compilers are the key to reaping the performance and power/memory savings features of the MIPS-based processor architectures. We're happy to have Green Hills on board for the MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures."

The MIPS32 4Kc (Jade) is a high-performance, synthesizeable, 32-bit RISC processor core optimized for low-power, battery-operated, system-on-a-chip ASIC applications. Fully compatible with the MIPS32 architecture, Jade supports R3000® and R4000® user-level code and is optimized for running embedded operating systems. The Jade core and its bus interface operate at speeds from 0-200 MHz, consuming just 2 mW/MHz when equipped with 16 kbytes of cache and fabricated in a typical 0.25-micron process. The core features a five-stage pipeline with branch control and single-cycle execution for most instructions, a 32-bit entry MMU, and up to 16 kbytes each of 4-way, set-associative instruction and data cache.

The MIPS64 5Kc (Opal) is a high-performance, synthesizeable 64-bit RISC processor core optimized for low-power, battery-operated, system-on-a-chip ASIC applications. Optimized for embedded operating systems, Opal runs user R4000 and R5000 code, features a peak clock frequency of 375 MHz, and consumes just 1 mW/MHz when fabricated using a typical 0.15-micron CMOS process. Opal features a six-stage pipeline with branch control and single-cycle execution for most instructions, a co-processor interface for FPUs, a 64-entry MMU, and up to 64 kbytes each of 4-way set-associative cache.

The MULTI 2000™ IDE, together with Green Hills' family of optimizing C, C++,EC++, and Ada95 compilers, automates all aspects of embedded software development for MIPS processors, including the MIPS32 4Kc (Jade) and MIPS64 5Kc (Opal) architectures. Available for Windows 95/98, Windows NT, and Unix host platforms, the MULTI IDE features a window-oriented editor, source-level debugger, graphical program builder, run-time error checker, version control system, performance profiler, optimizing profiler (CodeBalance™), and real-time RTOS EventAnalyzer. MULTI also features an instruction set simulator (SimMIPS) that allows programmers to develop and test code on a PC or workstation without the need for the target hardware.

The heart of the MULTI environment is a source-level debugger that supports process- and system-level debug. The debugger provides a separate window for each process, supports mixed assembly and high-level language formats, includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator, and provides special support for C++ (such as a Class Browser, object display and template debug capability). The MULTI 2000 debugger is fully RTOS aware, which enables designers to debug and tune their applications at a task level. With the MULTI debugger, designers working with popular RTOSs like ThreadX™ can start and stop threads, and monitor OS resources like buffers, queues, and semaphors.

MULTI 2000's EventAnalyzer, fully integrated with the ThreadX RTOS, builds on the debugger's real-time capabilities, graphically displaying system and application events on an expandable timeline in real time. Operating like a high-level logic analyzer, the EventAnalyzer GUI displays all context switches, ThreadX API calls, and interrupts in a time-relative manner using intuitive icons. The EventAnalyzer also provides versatile navigation capabilities that allow programmers to zoom in and out of the timeline to obtain greater detail about particular event sequences.

The MULTI 2000 IDE features the industry's most advanced MIPS-based C/C++ optimizing compiler. The scaleable C/C++ compiler lets programmers 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 Embedded C++ (EC++), a dialect of C++ optimized for resource-constrained embedded applications that achieves the efficiency of C while preserving many of the best object-oriented features of C++.

MULTI 2000 will be available for the MIPS32 4Kc and MIPS64 5Kc beginning in June.

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 C, C++, Embedded C++, Ada 95, FORTRAN and Pascal compilers. The company's unique MULTI Integrated Development Environment automates the compile-edit-build-debug cycle by integrating advanced facilities such as an RTOS-aware source-level debugger, performance profiler, program builder and version control system.

Green Hills Software's tools support all major 32-bit and 64-bit 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 is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA., and has US offices in California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida. International headquarters are located in the United Kingdom, with offices in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. For sales information on Green Hills Software products, please call 1-805-965-6044 or email inquiries to sales@ghs.com.

About MIPS Technologies, Inc.

MIPS Technologies, Inc. is one of the world's primary architects of embedded 32- and 64-bit RISC processors. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers, and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies, Inc. and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products.

Licensees currently include: Alchemy Microprocessor Design Group (Cadence); ATI Technologies Inc.; Broadcom Corporation; Centillium Communications, Inc.; Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd.; CommQuest (IBM); ESS Technology, Inc.; Excess Bandwidth Corporation; General Instrument Corporation; Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT); Lara Technology, Inc.; LSI Logic Corporation; Macronix; Metalink Ltd.; NEC Corporation; NKK Corporation; Philips Semiconductors; Quantum Effect Devices, Inc. (QED); Sandcraft, Inc.; SiByte, Inc.; Sony Corporation; Synova; Texas Instruments Incorporated; and Toshiba Corporation. Numerous companies utilize MIPS-based intellectual property. MIPS Technologies, Inc. is based in Mountain View, California, and can be reached at 650-567-5000 or http://www.mips.com.

MIPS is a registered trademark and MIPS64, MIPS32, 4Kc and 5Kc are trademarks of MIPS Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. All press materials are available on the World Wide Web via: http://www.mips.com.