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Nuremberg, Embedded Eorld 2nd – 4th March 2010 – Renesas Technology Europe and IAR Systems will jointly launch an integrated development environment and compiler support for the SH-2A microcontroller device.
The SuperH architecture is one of the world’s most popular 32-bit cores and IAR Embedded Workbench is one of the world’s most popular compilers and IDEs. This development gives SuperH developers another option to use for their development while adding a significant software performance improvement.
Introduction to the SH-2A core
This core, an enhanced version of Renesas’ SH-2 core with a superscalar architecture, has two execution units in the pipeline. Allowing two instructions to be processed concurrently, code can be executed up to twice as fast as the CPU clock. In addition, its Harvard-based architecture ensures that no bus conflicts occur between instruction fetch and data access. The SH-2A also features the addition of an optional Floating Point Unit (FPU), and reaches performance of up to 480 DMIPS and 400 MFLOPS.
The core’s CPU registers are also arranged in “banks”, with the 19 registers being mirrored 15 times. Using this technique, an interrupt subroutine can use a second set of registers leaving the current ones ready for use upon return from the interrupt subroutine. This means that the registers do not need to be popped onto and back from the stack, providing a quicker return from the interrupt subroutine. As a result, the response time to an interrupt request (IRQ) is as quick as a simple branch instruction (or just 30ns).
Introduction to IAR and the compiler
IAR Embedded Workbench for SuperH is a set of highly sophisticated and easy-to-use development tools for embedded applications. It incorporates IAR C/C++ Compiler, assembler, linker, librarian, text editor, project manager, and IAR C-SPY debugger combined in an integrated development environment (IDE).
The tools from IAR Systems support code generation and project management for all SH-2A and SH-2A-FPU based devices. On-chip debugging in IAR C-SPY Debugger is supported for Renesas E10A-USB probe. The debugger can also run with the built-in instruction set simulator driver. Further third party debuggers can be used due to a wide variety of industry standard output formats generated by the linker.
The IAR C/C++ compiler is renowned across the embedded industry for delivering reliable, high-performance compiled code. Recent benchmarks have proven that more compact and faster code is generated for SH-2A devices by the IAR C/C++ compiler than by competing compilers.
SuperH SH-2A and IAR together
IAR Embedded Workbench for SuperH provides an upgrade path to high performance SH-2A devices for the many users of other Renesas architectures including the H8 and M16C families. The well known development environment and familiar support for embedded programming provided in the build tools can shorten the learning period and speed up the project.
An evaluation version of IAR Embedded Workbench for SuperH can be downloaded for free from www.iar.com/downloads.
* Product names, company names, or brands mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
About Renesas Technology Corp.
Renesas Technology Corp. is the world's No.1 supplier of microcontrollers and one of the world's leading semiconductor system solutions providers for mobile, automotive and PC/AV (Audio Visual) markets. It is also a leading provider of Power MOSFETs, Smart Card microcontrollers, RF-ICs, High Power Amplifiers, Mixed Signal ICs, System-on-Chip (SoC), System-in-Package (SiP) and more. Established in 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503), Renesas Technology achieved consolidated revenue of 702.7 billion JPY in FY2008 (end of March 2009). Renesas Technology is based in Tokyo, Japan and has a global network of manufacturing, design and sales operations in 16 countries with 25,000 employees worldwide. For further information, please visit http://www.renesas.com
Headquartered in Buckinghamshire, UK, Renesas Technology Europe has offices in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany (3 offices), Italy, Spain, Sweden, and representation via related companies in the Czech Republic, South Africa and Russia.
In Europe, Renesas focuses on automotive (control, networking, infotainment), wireless (GSM, CDMA and Bluetooth), smart card and microcontroller applications such as white goods, motor control, metering, energy management, building security and healthcare. It employs over 150 engineers to develop solutions for the European market and to assist customers with application development. Renesas is a leading supplier of smart card ICs in Europe. Europe is the world’s largest market for automotive electronics and microcontrollers, and is the region of most design influence for wireless electronic products. Feedback from customers in Europe has great influence on Renesas’ product development.
For further information, please visit http://www.renesas.com or for Europe visit http://www.renesas.eu
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