New MULTI integrated development environment and optimising compiler for MSC8102

Publication date on this website: Monday, January 13, 2003
Company: Green Hills Software
Category: Press Releases : Tools

Summary:
Embedded World, 18 – 20 February 2003
Hall 12, Stand No. 320
New MULTI integrated development environment and optimising compiler for MSC8102

Full Text:
Embedded World, 18 – 20 February 2003
Hall 12, Stand No. 320
New MULTI integrated development environment and optimising compiler for MSC8102

Green Hills Software, has released the MULTI® 2000 Integrated Development Environment and high-speed Green Hills Probe for the StarCore®-based MSC8102 digital signal processor, Motorola’s highest performance DSP.

The new IDE, featuring C and C++ optimising compilers and a multi-core debugger, provides a DSP-optimised superset of MULTI’s powerful editing, debugging, profiling, and project management capabilities.

The MSC8102 combines four StarCore SC140 cores running at speeds of up to 300 MHz with four Enhanced Filter Coprocessors (EFCOPs), delivering a peak performance of 6000 million multiply accumulates per second (MMACs). This high performance level, coupled with the MSC8102’s large on-chip memory (1436 Kbytes), four high-speed TDM interfaces, 16-channel DMA, and high performance system and peripheral bus interface, make it ideal for a wide range of compute-intensive telecommunications applications.

The MULTI 2000 IDE automates all aspects of software development for the MSC8102. Optimised for the MSC8102’s SC140 core architecture, the MULTI IDE features a window-oriented editor, RTOS-aware, multi-core source-level debugger, graphical program builder, run-time error checker, version control system, and performance profiler. MULTI also supports Motorola’s StarCore instruction set simulator and multi-core cycle-accurate simulator, which enable programmers to develop and test MSC8102 code on a PC or workstation without the need for the target hardware.

The MULTI debugger, which supports incremental debugging, provides a separate window for each SC140 core and process, supports mixed assembly and high-level language formats, and includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator. Using MULTI, MSC8102 programmers can simultaneously view all MSC8102 registers and debug all four SC140 cores, independently or synchronously setting hardware breakpoints, running, stepping or halting all four cores. The debugger also provides advanced trace capabilities, featuring trace analysis and trigger windows that make it easy for MSC8102 users to save and load trace data to files, identify pertinent exception events, initiate trace (before, after, and during trigger events), and save/load trigger setups.

The MULTI debugger is RTOS aware, enabling users to debug and tune MSC8102 applications running under popular RTOSes. Support is planned for OSE Systems’ OSEck at a process level. With MULTI’s freeze mode debugging, users can debug (including setting task-specific breakpoints) one or more processes running on any of the MSC8102 cores. MULTI communicates with the MSC8102 target system through either a Macraigor Wiggler, or Green Hills Software’s own high-speed hardware debug Probe, which supports simultaneous multi-core debug with download rates of greater than 400 kbytes/sec.

MULTI features the industry’s fastest and most efficient MSC8102 optimising C and C++ compilers, which automatically partition code for optimal execution on the MSC8102’s multiple MAC, ALU and BFU processing units. The compilers also take full advantage of the MSC8102’s variable-length execution set (VLES), providing more than 100 advanced optimisations 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.

The MULTI IDE runs on Windows, Linux and Solaris hosts and is available for the StarCore MSC8102 now.

Contact:
About Green Hills Software
Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software Inc. is the technology leader for real-time operating systems and software development tools for 32- and 64-bit embedded systems. Our royalty-free INTEGRITY® and ThreadX® RTOSes, compilers, MULTI® Integrated Development Environment and Green Hills Probe, offer a complete development solution that addresses both deeply embedded and high-reliability applications.

Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with European headquarters in the United Kingdom. For more information on Green Hills Software products, call 805-965-6044, email sales@ghs.com or visit us on the web at www.ghs.com

LEGAL
Green Hills Software, the Green Hills logo, MULTI and INTEGRITY are registered trademarks, and The Green Hills Probe, Slingshot, EventAnalyzer, Integrate, G-Cover, G-Mart, G-Start and Safety Critical Products are trademarks of Green Hills Software Inc.

All other trademarks (registered or otherwise) are the property of their respective companies.

Editorial contact information:
Christopher Smith, Director of Marketing, European Operations, Green Hills Software Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)1962 829820 Fax: +44 (0) 1962 890300 Email: chriss@ghs.com
Sales enquiries to:
Green Hills Software Ltd Tel: +44 (0)1962 829820
Dolphin House Fax: +44 (0)1962 890300
St Peter Street Email: mktg-europe@ghs.com
Winchester Web: www.ghs.com
SO23 8BW
United Kingdom

Issued by:
June Stokes/Shafique Bhanji, Pinnacle Marketing Communications
Tel. : +44 (0)20 8869 9345/9339 Fax : +44 (0)20 8868 4373
E-mail: june@pinnacle-marketing.com, shafique@pinnacle-marketing.com