Santa Barbara, CA. August 14, 2000, Green Hills Software today announced the availability of the MULTI® 2000 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Hitachi's SuperH® RISC microprocessors running the ThreadX® real-time operating system. The MULTI 2000 IDE is available for the full line of Hitachi SuperH processors, including the SH-1, SH-2, SH-3, and SH-4 families. The MULTI 2000 IDE is also available for Hitachi's family of DSP-integrated processors, including the SH-DSP and SH3-DSP chips.

The MULTI 2000 IDE, together with Green Hills' family of optimizing C, C++, and Embedded C++ compilers, automates all aspects of embedded software development for Hitachi SuperH and SuperH DSP processors. Featuring a window-oriented editor, source-level debugger, graphical program builder, and run-time error checker, MULTI 2000 also includes a version control system, instruction set simulator, performance profiler, real-time EventAnalyzer, and context-sensitive HTML help system.

The MULTI 2000 IDE's C/C++ optimizing compilers take full advantage of the SuperH architecture's powerful computational resources and instruction set. For example, the compiler supports the SH3-DSP's ability to execute four independent operations per instruction (one addition or subtraction, one multiply, and one load or store from each of the two memory banks), structures code to take advantage of the SH3-DSP's zero-overhead looping capability, and allows designers to assemble and disassemble DSP code and view internal DSP registers. The compiler also harnesses the SH-4 processor's ability to execute two instructions on each clock cycle, and utilizes its 16-bit fixed-length instructions to achieve a significant reduction in code size with minimal impact on performance.

"The SuperH processors which also includes DSP capability are ideal for tackling compute-intensive embedded applications with tight space and cost constraints," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills. "The MULTI 2000 IDE, together with Green Hills' optimizing compilers, make it easy for developers to take full advantage of the SuperH architecture's versatile instruction set, high level of integration, and powerful computational resources."

"The MULTI IDE and optimizing compilers provide an excellent platform for quickly developing fast, compact code for SuperH processors," said David Johnson, Tools Development Marketing Manager for Hitachi Semiconductor (America). "The MULTI 2000 IDE adds new features that should make the MULTI platform even more attractive to our developers, including incremental debug, real-time event analysis, more powerful object oriented facilities, and support for the ThreadX real-time operating system."

The MULTI 2000 IDE is available for the following Hitachi processors:

SH-1. A 20-MHz, 32-bit CPU with a 16-bit, fixed-point multiplier-accumulator (MAC), 16-bit memory interface, DMA controller, and A/D converter.

SH-2. Upward compatible with the SH-1, combines a 40-MHz, 32-bit CPU with a 32-bit MAC, 4 Kbytes of cache, a 32-bit memory interface, DMA controller, and A/D converter.

SH-3. Upward compatible with the SH-1 and SH-2, combines a 133-MHz, 32-bit CPU, MAC, and MMU with 8 kbytes of instruction cache, 16 kbytes of data cache, a 32-bit memory interface, an on-board DMA controller, and integrated A/D, D/A, and PCMCIA interfaces.

SH-4. A dual-issue, superscalar 32-bit RISC processor with integrated single- and double-precision floating point capability that delivers a peak performance of 360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS at 200 MHz. The SH-4 features 8 kbytes of instruction cache, 16 kbytes of data cache, an MMU, a vector accelerator engine, and a 16-bit fixed-length instruction set architecture that achieves a 50% reduction in code size relative to 32-bit-only processors.

SH-DSP. Combines a 32-bit RISC CPU with a 16-bit fixed-point digital signal processor. Object code compatible with the SH-1 and SH-2 processors, the SH-DSP provides sixteen 32-bit general-purpose registers, eight DSP registers, X/Y RAM, onboard flash and peripheral support such as CAN, 10/100 Ethernet, and USB.

SH3-DSP. Combines an SH-3 core with a 16-bit digital signal processor. The first member of the SH3-DSP family, the 133-MHz SH7729, features an MMU, six 32-bit DSP registers, two 40-bit accumulators, eight channels of 10-bit A/D, two channels of 8-bit D/A, and a four-channel DMA controller. The SH7729 also features eight kbytes each of X and Y RAM (for operand storage), a lockable 16-kbyte cache, which is shared between the CPU and DSP, and four address/data buses, which enable CPU, DSP, and DMA accesses to occur in parallel.

The heart of the MULTI environment is an RTOS-aware, source-level debugger that features an integrated memory viewer, incremental debug capability, and support for both 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 and X-Windows debugging)

The MULTI 2000 debugger is tightly integrated with the ThreadX RTOS, which enables designers to debug and tune their SuperH and SH-DSP applications at a task level. With the MULTI debugger, designers working with ThreadX can start and stop tasks, as well as monitor OS resources like buffers, queues, and streams.

MULTI 2000's EventAnalyzer builds on the MULTI 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.

More on Green Hills Software, Inc.

Incorporated in 1982, Green Hills Software, Inc., is a leading supplier of royalty-free real-time operating systems and software development tools for 32- and 64-bit embedded systems. Green Hills' royalty-free INTEGRITY® and the ThreadX® real-time operating systems, 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 international headquarters in the United Kingdom. For more information on Green Hills Software products, please call 1-805-965-6044 or email inquiries to sales@ghs.com. http://www.ghs.com.

About Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc.

Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc. - a subsidiary of Hitachi America, Ltd., in turn a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) - supports the requirements of the North American marketplace with a broad range of standard and low-power semiconductor solutions. Offering some of the industry's most popular RISC microprocessors and memory components among other semiconductor solutions, Hitachi provides chips to the world's leading device manufacturers within industrial, consumer and emerging market applications. Hitachi's substantial design engineering and research and development facilities in the United States help bring the world's best technology to U.S. customers.

Readers can find additional product and contact information on the Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Website (www.hitachi.com/semiconductor) or by calling (800) 285-1601.

SuperH is a registered trademark of Hitachi. Ltd.