Franklin Software to support Philips Semiconductors' XA family of microcontrollers; Franklin announces IDE support for the XA

Business Wire, Sept 7, 1995

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 1995--Franklin Software today announced an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) tool set that supports Philips Semiconductors' new 16-bit XA microcontroller architecture.

The FranklinXA-based IDE will include an XA Macro Assembler, XA Linker/Locator, XA Object Librarian, XA Instruction Simulator, XA Debugger, and an XA ANSI C Compiler.

The Franklin XA ANSI C Compiler, optimized for the XA architecture, forms the core of an XA IDE tool set. The XA IDE debugger provides comprehensive C and assembly debugging, and interfaces directly with the built-in XA simulator and real-time in-circuit emulators.

The Franklin XA Macro Assembler is fully symbolic with complete macro facilities. It contains in-string, binary, decimal, floating point and hexadecimal representations. The XA Linker/Locator has extensive maps, cross references, and symbol tables. The Linker/Locator is capable of reading OMF-51 object modules and libraries and accepts IEEE 695 Object Module Format.

The XA Object Librarian allows inserting, deleting, replacing, listing and extracting object modules with an unlimited library size. The XA Instruction Simulator contains timing analysis and supports internal clock cycle timing, including memory wait-state effects.

Philips' XA microcontroller provides an easy 16-bit upgrade path for design engineers who require much higher performance than they can get from the 8-bit 80C51. Since the XA architecture is an extension of the popular 8-bit architecture, all existing 80C51 application software, when translated, will run on the XA at greatly improved speeds. More over, with performance that is 3 times faster than the 16-bit microcontroller, Philips' XA was designed to satisfy the increasing performance needs of designers for many years.

"Franklin is a leader in development software for the 80C51 market. Supporting the XA is a natural extension for Franklin," said David Fair, Marketing Manager of Philips Semiconductors Microcontroller Business Unit.

"80C51 design engineers who have turned to the XA for more performance will be able to minimize their learning curve with the Franklin IDE because its user interface is the same as the 80C51 version."

The total world microcontroller market exceeded $8 billion in 1994. The largest portion of the market consists of 8-bit devices, representing just over 50 percent ($4.4 billion), and growing at a rate close to 15 percent a year.

Philips Semiconductors is the leading supplier of the most popular 8-bit architecture, the 80C51. They offer over 50 derivatives, and in 1994, In-Stat reported Philips' sales of $280 million. With the introduction of the XA-G3, Philips extends its 80C51 leadership into the 16-bit market.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Philips Electronics NV headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the eleventh largest semiconductor supplier in the world.

Philips Semiconductors' innovations in digital audio, video, and mobile technology position the company as a leader in the consumer, multimedia, and wireless communications markets. Sales offices are located in all major markets around the world and are supported by the regional customer application labs.

Additional information on Philips Semiconductors can be obtained by accessing the Philips Internet Home Page located at: http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/ps/

Franklin Software, Inc., is an innovative software developer and marketer stratgically geared towards the embedded systems market.

Beginning modestly in the late 1980s with the 8051 family of microcontrollers, Franklin has consistently enjoyed a 17% annual growth rate and now accommodates most of the major embedded chip families in use today.

Franklin products are, Performance Crafted, by design-not after thought. Available on every continent except Antarctica, Franklin product support is maintained by a responsive and effective marketing and sales support staff using all aspects of modern and innovative communication techniques.

Additional information on Franklin Software can be obtained by accessing the Franklin Software Internet Home Page located at: http://www.fsinc.com/home

CONTACT: Philips Semiconductor

Peter Brown, 408/991-3626

or

Franklin Software

Siegfried W. Bleher, 408/296-8051

or

Oak Ridge Public Relations, Inc.

Rachel Modena Barasch/Jean Stawarz, 408/253-5042