Green Hills Software Announces Software Development Solution for Microchip Technology's PIC24 MCUs and dsPIC DSCs

[Source: Marketwire]

Green Hills Tools Available for Microchip's Entire 16-bit Portfolio

SANTA BARBARA, CA--(Marketwire - January 8, 2008) - Green Hills Software, Inc., the technology leader in device software optimization (DSO) and real-time operating systems (RTOS), and Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP), a leading provider of microcontroller and analog semiconductors, today announced that Green Hills Software's integrated development environment, MULTI, is now available for Microchip's 16-bit PIC24 microcontroller (MCU) and dsPIC® digital signal controller (DSC) families.

"This expansion of the Green Hills Software toolchain gives engineers an opportunity to take advantage of the advanced features and capabilities of Microchip's dsPIC DSC and PIC24 MCU products, using one of the most recognized and productive environments in the industry. Within the MULTI integrated development environment, users can now easily migrate between Microchip's 16-bit devices and 32-bit PIC32 MCUs," commented Derek Carlson, vice president of Microchip's Development Tools group. "Together, MULTI and the Microchip MPLAB® REAL ICE™ in-circuit emulation system enable embedded software developers to maximize performance and reduce development time."

The Green Hills Software solution for Microchip's PIC24/dsPIC DSC family consists of the following components:

-- MULTI integrated development environment -- providing the most comprehensive DSO tool set for embedded software developers

-- MPLAB C30 C Compiler

-- MPLAB REAL ICE Emulator -- providing reliable and efficient debugging

-- Microchip PIC24 MCU/dsPIC DSC instruction-set simulator

"Green Hills Software and the MULTI integrated development environment offer the kind of features and performance embedded engineers worldwide have come to expect," said David Kleidermacher, chief technology officer, Green Hills Software. "Microchip's dsPIC DSCs and PIC24 MCUs bring high-powered performance and value to the 16-bit market. They are a natural complement to our tools and product line, and we are pleased to make this addition."

Read the full press release on Marketwire.

How to create a C30 project in MPLAB IDE 7.52

I put together a very quick video showing new users how to create a simple MPLAB C30 project in MPLAB IDE 7.52. I'm hoping that this video will help new users get up and running. I have to cruise along at a snappy pace due to filesize restrictions, but I hope you can follow along.

Full Size

Quick example of MPLAB C30 3.00's managed-PSV feature

One of the big new features of MPLAB C30 3.00 is the new managed-PSV feature. Previous versions of C30 were limited to just one page of compiler-managed PSV constants. This new release will automatically switch to the correct PSV page when accessing a managed variable.

The screenshot below shows a very simple example of the managed-PSV feature in action just sitting there.



The space attribute places the variable into the program memory space, and the new __prog__ qualifier tells the compiler to manage the PSVPAG for this variable.

You can also see the generated assembly code. You'll notice that the compiler saves and restores the current value of PSVPAG. This is to ensure compatibility with modules built with the older const-in-code model.

Older libraries that don't know how to manage the PSVPAG may assume that PSVPAG is currently set to the .const section. Code generated using the managed-PSV feature must respect this assumption and save/restore the PSVPAG.

I hope this post helps you get up to speed with the new feature (even though all of this information is documented in the updated C30 User's Guide). Have fun flipping pages!

MPLAB C30 3.00 Now Available

Those of you out there who read the Microchip forums regularly already know that C30 3.00 is now available for download from the web [http://www.microchip.com/c30]. I think I'll write a few posts covering the new features over the next few days. A few people might be interested in the new managed-PSV feature.

Registered users can use the Student Edition installer to upgrade to 3.00. Basically the student edition installer is smart enough to know not to overwrite your full license with a student license.

Don't forget to check out the updated documents, which are also available for download from the MPLAB C30 web page.