Green Hills Software's MULTI IDE Selected For Future Versions Of Mercury's Software Development Environment

Business Wire, Sept 18, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 2000

Will Enhance Software Development Capabilities For

Mercury's RACE PowerPC Multiprocessor Systems

Green Hills Software today announced an agreement with Mercury Computer Systems (Nasdaq:MRCY) whereby Mercury will incrementally include Green Hills' MULTI(R) 2000 integrated development environment with future versions of Mercury's software development environment.

The integration of MULTI will greatly enhance the productivity of software development for Mercury's RACE (TM) multiprocessor systems, including those based on the leading-edge Motorola PowerPC(TM) 7400 processor with AltiVec(TM) technology.

"MULTI's integrated debug, program build, profiling, and version control facilities streamline the development of complex multiprocessor software for Mercury systems based on the RACE architecture and PowerPC microprocessors," said John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software. "At the same time, our optimizing compilers, which implement the AltiVec extensions to the C language, make it easier for programmers to harness the PowerPC's superscalar and vector processing facilities without having to program in assembly language."

"Integrated development environments for embedded real-time systems have become more powerful, and MULTI is the acknowledged leader," said Rich Jaenicke, director of product marketing at Mercury. "We chose MULTI for its powerful user interface, highly-integrated toolset, and extensibility to multiprocessor software development. Offering MULTI to Mercury software developers is the first step in Mercury's plan to provide best-of-breed mainstream software for our RACE high-performance embedded computer systems."

Mercury Computer Systems provides high-performance PCI and VME multiprocessing systems for digital signal and image processing applications based on the RACEway Interlink Standard. The RACEway standard (RACEway Interlink ANSI/VITA 5-1994), originally developed by Mercury, transforms the PCI and VMEbus from single-transaction buses into scalable, real-time, switched fabrics that are ideal for multiprocessing applications scaling from several to hundreds of processors. The RACE architecture, also developed by Mercury, is a second-generation architecture that extends the aggregate bandwidth of RACE(R) crossbar switches from 480 Mbyte/sec to 1 Gbyte/sec.

The MULTI 2000 IDE, available for Windows NT and Solaris hosts, automates all aspects of software development for PowerPC processors, including those equipped with the Altivec extensions. 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 simulators, performance profiler, and real-time EventAnalyzer(TM). MULTI also features the industry's most advanced PowerPC 7400 C/C optimizing compiler, which enables programmers to take full advantage of the processor's dual-issue and AltiVec vector processing capabilities without programming in assembly language.

The heart of the MULTI environment is a source-level incremental debugger, which features process- and system-level debug capability. The debugger supports mixed assembly and high-level language formats, includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator, provides a separate debug window for each process, and provides special support for C including a Class Browser, object display and template debug capability.

The MULTI 2000 debugger is fully RTOS aware, which enables designers to debug and tune their applications at a task level. The debugger also supports run-mode debugging, which enhances the debug process by enabling programmers to halt and debug tasks while the rest of the tasks continue to run.

About Mercury Computer Systems Inc.

Mercury Computer Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:MRCY) is the leading independent producer of high-performance embedded, real-time digital signal and image processing computer systems that transform sensor data to information for analysis and interpretation. Mercury's products play a critical role in a wide range of defense electronics and medical imaging applications. In air-, sea-, and land-based military platforms, these systems process real-time radar, sonar, and signals intelligence data. Mercury's systems are also used in state-of-the-art medical diagnostic devices, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and the rapidly growing field of digital X-ray. Visit Mercury on the Web at http://www.mc.com.

About Green Hills Software

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 ThreadX(R) and INTEGRITY(TM) real-time operating systems, fully integrated with its market leading compilers and MULTI(R) integrated development environment, provide a total development and run-time solution that addresses both deeply embedded and high-reliability applications. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, with international headquarters in the United Kingdom. For more information on Green Hills Software products, please call 805/965-6044 or email inquiries to sales@ghs.com. http://www.ghs.com.