Santa Barbara, CA. April 24, 2000 - Green Hills Software today announced that audioshock, inc., is using Green Hills' MULTI® Integrated Development Environment to develop software for audioshock's Virtual Jukebox - an Internet Appliance that makes it possible for music companies to distribute music over the Internet to consumers without the need for a personal computer. The Virtual Jukebox is powered by Cirrus Logic's ARM-based processors. In addition to MULTI, Green Hills provided a complete development solution for the Virtual Jukebox including the ThreadX® Real-Time Operating System, Portable TCP/IP, FTP Communications and the NicheView embedded Internet web browser.

"The compact disc is a dying technology!" says audioshock president Carl Chala. "Music distribution is going digital and audioshock's Virtual Jukebox gives both consumers and music providers an easy, convenient e-commerce solution. Green Hills' tools proved invaluable in helping us to get to market fast with optimized code for the Virtual Jukebox."

"The MULTI IDE and optimizing compilers are ideal for developing embedded software for Web-enabled home audio components that require fast, compact code," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software. "We're extremely pleased to have been selected by audioshock, inc., for this project and regard it as confirmation of the superiority of the ThreadX RTOS and our development tools."

The Virtual Jukebox is a home audio component that combines traditional audio outputs with a high-speed Internet connection and e-commerce capabilities. Utilizing a text browser remote control to access the Internet, consumers can download new music from the comfort of their sofa. The Virtual Jukebox not only downloads and plays music, but also allows user to transfer their existing music collection (to the Jukebox hard drive) for easy centralized storage.

The MULTI 2000 IDE, together with Green Hills' family of optimizing C, C++, and EC++ compilers, automates all aspects of software development for ARM processors. Available for Windows 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 (SimARM) that allows programmers to develop and test code on a PC or workstation without the need for the target hardware.

The MULTI 2000 IDE features the industry's most advanced ARM 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++.

Green Hills C/C++ compiler takes full advantage of the ARM's 16-bit Thumb® architecture extensions, which enable designers to achieve significant reductions in code size without compromising performance. To help embedded systems programmers maximize performance and efficiency and make size/speed tradeoffs, MULTI provides a run-time execution profiler. The profiler lets users see the code size and run time for each function as compiled using 16- or 32-bit instructions. Then, based on user-supplied size and speed constraints, the profiler outputs a set of command line directives to the compiler that specify how the source code should be partitioned into 16- and 32-bit segments to achieve the desired result.

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 software 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, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. International headquarters are located in the United Kingdom, with offices in France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands. For sales information on Green Hills Software products, please call 1-805-965-6044 or email inquiries to sales@ghs.com.