The MULTI environment automates all aspects of software development for Hitachi processors, including editing, source-level debugging, program building, execution profiling, and project/version control. Available with C, C++, EC++, and FORTRAN optimizing compilers, MULTI also features an instruction set simulator that allows programmers to develop and test SH-4 and SH3-DSP code without the need for the target hardware.

"Hitachi's SH embedded processor family is among the most comprehensive in the industry," remarked Green Hills president Dan O'Dowd. "The MULTI development environment and optimizing compilers are tuned to leverage the full breadth of the SH product line, from the specialized signal processing facilities of the SH3-DSP, to the powerful superscalar capabilities of the SH-4."

SH3-DSP Support

The SH3-DSP is a family of high-performance embedded controllers that combines a SuperH RISC processor (SH-3 Series) with a 16-bit digital signal processor. The first member of the SH3-DSP family, dubbed the SH7729, delivers a peak performance of 266 million operations per second at 60 MHz.

The SH7729 provides a four-channel DMA controller, 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 SH7729 also provides a 128-entry MMU, six 32-bit DSP registers, two 40-bit accumulators, eight channels of 10-bit A/D, two channels of 8-bit D/A, a three-channel serial interface, and an on-chip debug port.

Green Hills' C and C++ compilers take full advantage of 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). The compilers also provide a means for programmers to assign data to either memory bank. To increase efficiency for looping constructs, which predominate in signal processing applications, the compiler automatically structures code to take maximum advantage of the SH3-DSP's zero-overhead looping capability.

Green Hills' MULTI environment also provides unique insight into the SH3-DSP's signal processing capabilities. In particular, MULTI allows designers to assemble and disassemble DSP code and view internal DSP registers, a capability not available with competitive development environments such as VxWorks.

SH-4 Support

The SH-4 is a dual-issue, superscalar, 64-bit RISC processor that delivers a peak performance of 360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS at 200 Mhz. Packing 8 kbytes of instruction cache, 16 kbytes of data cache, and a 64-entry, full-associative MMU, the SH-4 features a 3D graphics engine and supports both single- and double-precision floating point arithmetic.

Green Hills' optimizing compilers take full advantage of the SH-4's ability to execute two instructions on each clock cycle. The compilers also take full advantage of the SH-4's 16-bit fixed-length instructions, which enable them to achieve a significant reduction in code size relative to 32-bit-only processors with minimal impact on performance.

More on MULTI

MULTI provides a uniform set of C, C++ and assembly language development capabilities that span Windows 95, Windows NT, and Unix host platforms. Moreover, 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' 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 Hitachi's CPUs 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 BDM/JTAG interfaces.

To assist programmers in evaluating MULTI, Green Hills is offering a multimedia demonstration CD that takes users step-by-step through the process of developing and debugging embedded applications using the MULTI environment. Included on the CD is the MULTI environment for Windows 95, NT and Unix hosts, optimizing compilers and simulators for the SH1, SH2, SH2-DSP, SH3, SH3-DSP, and SH-4 processors, and on-line documentation.

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 Ada, C, C++, FORTRAN and Pascal compilers. The company also offers a software development environment known as MULTI that automates the compile-edit-build-debug cycle by integrating advanced facilities such as an RTOS-aware source-level debugger, profiler, program builder and source code control system.

Green Hills' tools support all major 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, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida. International headquarters are located in the United Kingdom, with offices in France, Germany, and The Netherlands. For sales information on Green Hills Software's products, please call 1-800-500-2580, or contact sales@ghs.com.