The SH-4 is the first dual-issue, superscalar RISC processor targeting embedded systems applications. Featuring 64-bit data paths, the SH-4 delivers a peak performance of 360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS at 200 Mhz. It also provides 8 kbytes of instruction cache, 16 kbytes of data cache, and a 64-entry, fully-associative memory management unit. Other features include support for single- and double-precision floating point arithmetic: a 3D graphics engine for fast scene manipulation; and a 16-bit fixed-length instruction set architecture that achieves a 50% reduction in code size relative to 32-bit-only processors.

Green Hills' MULTI environment and optimizing compilers address every aspect of SH-4 software development, including source-level debugging, window-oriented editing, automated program building, execution profiling, and project/version control. Moreover, the Green Hills' optimizing compilers take full advantage of the SH-4's ability to execute two instructions on each clock cycle.

Said Green Hills president Dan O'Dowd, "The SH-4 provides an excellent complement to the SH family at the high end. The dual-issue architecture delivers the performance needed to tackle high-end embedded applications, while the 16-bit fixed-length instructions and 800-Mbyte/sec data transfer rate enables embedded designers to take full advantage of available memory resources."

Added Hitachi Product Manager Dave Pelavin, "We're pleased to see Green Hills continue its support for the SH product line, which now includes the SH-DSP and SH-4. Green Hills' MULTI environment and optimizing compilers make it easy for embedded programmers to takefull advantage of the SH-4's advanced superscalar architecture."

The MULTI Development Environment and Green Hills compilers provide a uniform set of C, C++ and assembly language development capabilities that span Windows 95, Windows NT, and Unix host platforms. The heart of the MULTI environment is an RTOS-aware source-level debugger that features task- and system-level debug capabilities. The debugger also provides special support for C++ (including a Class Browser, object display and template debug capability) and X-Windows debugging.

MULTI's program builder, editor, and debugger are tightly integrated to offer quick, convenient single- and double-click transfers between debug mode and full source editing. For example, simply clicking on a compiler error message brings the user to the editor, opens the file containing the error, moves the cursor to the line containing the error, and highlights the error.

Green Hills' new 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 a new dialect of C++ known as Embedded C++ (EC++). Optimized for resource-constrained embedded applications, EC++ achieves the efficiency of C while preserving many of the best object-oriented features of C++.

Code that has been compiled for the SH-4 can run on the target hardware in a bare bones mode, under Green Hills' own velOSity and INTEGRITY real-time operating systems, under Wind River Systems' VxWorks operating system, under custom real-time operating systems, under a variety of processor-specific in-circuit emulators (ICEs), and on targets that support on-chip debugging facilities.

For sales information on Green Hills Software's products, please call 1-805-965-6044 or email inquiries to sales@ghs.com.