Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Wind River Systems | Subject: MPC8641D Dual Core Processor
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 28 July 2006
Wind River Debuts Multiprocessing
Solutions
Wind River has demonstrated a complete end-to-end multicore solution optimised for the Freescale MPC8641D Dual Core Processor
Wind River, the global leader in Device Software Optimisation (DSO), has demonstrated a complete end-to-end multicore solution optimised for the Freescale MPC8641D Dual Core Processor at the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) in Orlando, Florida Wind River optimised the solution by tailoring its industry-leading device software including: commercial-grade integrated development suite, on-chip debugging tools, run-time environments, interprocessor communication protocols, and middleware technologies for the development of devices running the MPC8641D Dual Core Processor built on Power Architecture technology
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 23 Oct 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Multicore solutions from Freescale and Wind River help remove the complexity associated with developing a software solution on a multicore silicon system while taking full advantage of the performance benefits of multicore hardware components, ultimately enabling customers to significantly reduce time-to-market.
"Multiprocessing and multicore technology are gateways to the vast improvements in device functionality needed for today's highly competitive networking, communications and pervasive computing industries," said Rick Morris, vice president of worldwide design for Freescale's Networking and Computing Systems Group.
"Wind River and Freescale deliver commercial-grade, end-to-end solutions to the market that enable companies to develop, run and manage device software faster, better, at lower overall cost, and more reliably, without increasing power consumption".
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The solution demonstrated today by Wind River capitalises on the ability of the MPC8641D to support flexible software implementations, both symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and homogenous and heterogeneous asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP).
Wind River provides a robust, flexible choice of operating environment by supporting SMP and AMP options based on Linux and VxWorks.
By providing both an RTOS-based platform and a Linux-based platform, Wind River gives customers confidence and risk mitigation for their design as their multiprocessing requirements change over time.
Running two copies of VxWorks - one for each core - the solution utilises the maximum processing capability of homogenous AMP.
The processes running on each core communicate via the Transparent Interprocess Communication (TIPC) protocol using shared memory as the bearer in order to coordinate tasks and resources.
The TIPC protocol is specially designed for intra cluster communication, where "intra cluster" refers to any type of distributed multiprocessor system.
Tomas Evensen and Maarten Koning of Wind River lead the Multicore Association's TIPC Working Group and stand at the cutting edge of design innovation and industry standardisation in multicore.
TIPC gives designers the flexibility to divide the functionality of their device in ways that best optimises their application and allows the designer to assign distinct tasks to each processor core, thus delivering an optimal software and hardware environment.
To meet the needs of developers implementing Freescale's MPC8641D-based designs, Wind River provides a variety of products that support multiprocessing and multicore technologies, including the Wind River Workbench development suite.
Software optimisation for multicore devices requires a different design centre with regard to application interaction, performance, and concurrency.
As device manufacturers implement their initial multicore designs, optimised tools can reduce time spent in prototyping and debugging, enabling faster time-to-market.
Wind River offers a set of tools that provide advanced multicore development and debugging capabilities while supporting both heterogeneous operating systems and/or heterogeneous processor architectures.
Wind River's development suite enables multicore debugging with a single emulator connection by working in conjunction with Wind River's newest JTAG hardware run control device, Wind River ICE.
Through Wind River's JTAG server technology, optimised to the specifications of the Freescale MPC8641D, developers can debug multiple cores at the same time, whether they are on the same chip or in the same system.
Wind River Workbench's multicontext debugging capability accentuates the capability of Wind River ICE by providing developers with a debug context for each core connection, as well as key debug capabilities like cross-correlated breakpoints.
This enables developers to start and stop individual processors or the entire system when a specified event occurs.
Wind River Workbench integrates the industry's most powerful test and visualisation tools to monitor, analyse, and debug at every phase of development, providing early detection of show-stopping defects and increasing the overall quality and reliability of your product.
Workbench is backed by Wind River's 20-plus years of device software industry experience, a world-class support organisation, and a specialised professional services team.
Wind River launched a strategic initiative in March to drive standardisation and widespread adoption of multicore architecture and solutions in the device market.
Wind River's Multicore Processing (MCP) Initiative applies the company's leadership in standards development and open-source software to leading semiconductor manufacturers' multicore technologies to create and deploy innovative multicore solutions.
Today's announcement with Freescale furthers all five components of the initiative: Industry standardisation; multicore optimised development tools; run-time optimisation with choice of operating environment; open, integrated partner ecosystem; and access to multiprocessing experts via global services and support.
"Wind River is the leading DSO vendor for multicore development because we offer customers the flexibility to optimise to their specific requirements for each device," said Tomas Evensen, chief technology officer, Wind River.
"Applications today require more and more processing power within existing system power budgets - the combination of the MPC8641D with Wind River's complete end-to-end multicore solution puts the 'power' back in the hands of developers".
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