DSP World. April 10, 2000. Green Hills Software, Inc. today announced the availability of its MULTI® 2000 Integrated Development Environment for the StarCore SC100 generation of digital signal processors, beginning with the SC140 DSP core. The new StarCore SC140 DSP core, IDE, which features a groundbreaking C multiprocessor optimizing compiler, provides a DSP-optimized superset of the powerful editing, debugging, profiling, and project management capabilities already available in the MULTI development environment.
The MULTI 2000 IDE automates all aspects of software development for the StarCore SC100 generation of cores. Optimized for the SC100 architecture, the MULTI IDE features a window-oriented editor, Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS)-aware source-level debugger, graphical program builder, run-time error checker, version control system, and performance profiler. MULTI also features an instruction set simulator (Simsc) that allows programmers to develop and test SC100 code on a PC or workstation without the need for the target hardware.
"Green Hills is best known as a supplier of optimizing compilers for high-performance RISC and CISC CPUs," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software. "However, we cut our teeth developing vectorizing compilers for large machines and currently offer optimizing compilers for a number of CPUs with integrated DSP capability. Our expertise with RISC/CISC CPUs and DSPs makes us uniquely positioned to deliver an easy-to-use IDE that fully exploits the capabilities of the new StarCore SC100 architecture."
A product of a cooperative research and development alliance between Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT), the StarCore SC100 is a scaleable 16-bit data/32-bit address architecture that can be configured with a variable number of MACs and ALUs. To maximize code density and performance while minimizing power consumption, the SC140 combines 16-bit instructions with a variable-length execution set (VLES) that expands or shrinks based on the specific functions and performance level required of the hardware and tools. The SC140 DSP core is the first implementation of the compileable StarCore SC100 architecture. Featuring four single-cycle MAC units, four arithmetic logic units (ALUs), and four bit field units (BFUs), the SC140 delivers a peak performance of 1200 million MACs and 3000 RISC MIPS at 300 MHz.
The heart of the MULTI IDE is a source-level debugger with incremental debug capability that supports process- and system-level debug. The debugger provides a separate window for each process, supports mixed assembly and high-level language formats, and includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator. The MULTI 2000 debugger also 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 Enea OSE Systems' OSE® and Embedded Power Corporation's RTXC® can start and stop tasks, and monitor OS resources like buffers, queues, and streams.
The MULTI 2000 IDE's optimizing compiler automatically partitions C programs for optimal execution on SC140's MAC, ALU and BFU processing units. The compiler's global optimizer performs architecture-specific optimizations that are common to the SC100 generation. The code generator provides optimizations that are specific to each processor's pipeline and instruction set characteristics.
The MULTI C compiler provides more than 100 advanced optimizations that boost performance and code efficiency. Reordering VLES instruction groupings, for example, boosts performance and reduces RAM usage by increasing VLES packing efficiency and increasing parallelism. The compiler also increases parallelism by reordering operations within loops, and reduces looping overhead by supporting zero-overhead hardware looping for loops that are nested up to four deep.
To reduce RAM requirements, the compiler places all string literals, constants, and initialized variables that are declared as const (in the C program) in a distinct section that later can be ROMed. The compiler also reduces RAM requirements by collecting frequently used data and placing it in the lower 16 bits of the address space. This enables the data to be accessed using 32-bit instructions that enhance VLES packing efficiency.
"We are pleased to be working Green Hills, and to add them to the growing list of StarCore SC100 third-parties," said Thomas Brooks, StarCore marketing director. "Green Hills' user-friendly MULTI IDE Environment should help customers bring their products to market faster."
"The SC100's powerful parallel processing capabilities, when unleashed through Green Hills optimizing compiler, gives OEMs the processing power they need to address the most compute-intensive applications," said Robert Largren, Technical Director Strategic Development, Enea OSE Systems. "The MULTI IDE, together with the OSE RTOS, provides an excellent development and run-time platform for targeting high-performance, mission-critical applications like telecommunications."
The MULTI IDE supports most StarCore SC100 boards, including the Software Development Platform (SDP) evaluation board from Motorola and Lucent. These boards can be accessed through a variety of interfaces, including JTAG wigglers like the Macraigor Systems OCDemon, custom RTOSs, and off-the-shelf RTOSs like Enea's OSE and Embedded Power Corporation's RTXC.
More on Green Hills Software
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 edit-compile-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, North Carolina, 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.
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