Analog Devices Unveils VisualDSP++ Release 3.0 With Advanced Features for Ease of Use and Fast Time-to-Market

Business Wire, June 10, 2002

Business/Technology Editors

NORWOOD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 2002

Release offers key innovations that enable visualization of key programming elements as well as new VCSE which allows for re-use of software modules

Analog Devices, Inc. (NYSE: ADI) announced today the latest addition to its CROSSCORE(TM) family of DSP development tools, VisualDSP (TM) release 3.0. This release includes the VisualDSP Component Software Engineering (VCSE), a component model and binary standard that provides developers with easy access to and a methodology for re-using software modules as building blocks in DSP projects.

"Over the last 10 years, component software engineering has become the design methodology of choice in the world of Windows and UNIX software development," said Gerald McGuire, product line director, general purpose DSPs, Analog Devices. "ADI's unique VCSE extends the power of VisualDSP by allowing designers to leverage their existing code and to easily integrate third-party components into their DSP projects. VCSE also simplifies the process of comparing and choosing algorithms by allowing designers to locate modules via the Web, and view, download and compare these third-party components."

VCSE supports assembly, C, C , or a mixture of all three languages without requiring the overhead of an operating system or scheduler. Additionally, Wizards within VisualDSP automatically create an Interface Definition Language (IDL) framework and integrate it into the application to allow rapid prototyping and easy reuse of proven software components. The reusability of a component also reduces the total cost of producing an application and maximizes code quality.

Visualization Capabilities Offer a View to the Design Performance

Another new feature in VisualDSP release 3.0 is the Expert Linker, a graphical tool that simplifies complex tasks such as memory map manipulation, code and data placement, overlay and shared memory creation, and C stack/heap usage. The tool complements the existing VisualDSP Linker Definition File (LDF) format by providing a visualization capability enabling new users to take immediate advantage of the powerful LDF format flexibility.

Enhancements to the VisualDSP simulator include a new pipeline view that visually displays the instruction execution flow through the pipeline sequencer of the DSP. Stalls, bubbles and other pipeline events are graphically displayed enabling a developer to better understand where and why latencies or stalls occur in an application. With this new insight the user can optimize the execution of a sequence of instructions, minimizing the number of pipeline stalls thus gaining even higher performance.

Initially targeted for ADI's Blackfin(TM) DSP family of 16-bit DSPs, the enhanced simulator now also provides cache statistics. The cache visualization tool gives designers the ability to view the statistics pictorially, allowing easy analysis of the application's use of cache -- a most significant issue when optimizing for performance. By giving the developer a window into these intricate architecture features, VisualDSP release 3.0 allows the user to understand the applications run-time characteristics, optimize for even greater performance, simplifying development and reducing time to market.

Additional VisualDSP Release 3.0 Enhancements

In addition, VisualDSP Release 3.0 includes Microsoft's COM Automation API and ActiveX(R) technologies that allow other applications or tools to extend and seamlessly integrate into VisualDSP . For example, a user can write a simple script in Microsoft Excel(R) that connects to a target, loads a program, executes and transfers memory into Excel for data analysis.

Also included in this release are enhancements to the assembler. The enhanced assembler will help the programmer write optimal assembly code by analyzing code sequences and providing build-time feedback on latencies and stalls. Feedback is given as warnings and informational messages out of the assembler and in its listing file. The C/C compiler has also been enhanced with further optimization technology to maximize application performance and minimize code size.

Availability and Support

VisualDSP Release 3.0 for the Blackfin DSP family is now available. Support for all of ADI's DSP families will rollout throughout the remainder of 2002. Free upgrades and technical support is available for licensed users. Visit ADI's web site at http://www.analog.com/dsp/tools/ for a more detailed schedule of planned releases and take a test drive, a free 30-day trial of VisualDSP .

About ADI's VisualDSP

VisualDSP is an integrated development and debugging environment that delivers efficient project management enabling programmers to move easily between editing, building and debugging within a single interface. Advanced features include the VisualDSP Kernel (VDK), C/C compiler, advanced 3-D plotting tools, statistical profiling and TCL scripting support. VisualDSP is part of ADI's CROSSCORE family of DSP development tools, which also includes emulators and evaluation boards.