MIPS Technologies and Green Hills Software Partner To Offer "Best-in-Class" Application Development Environment

MOUNTAIN VIEW & SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2001--

Fully Integrated, End-to-End Tool Chain Delivers Time-to-Market

Advantage For MIPS32(TM) and MIPS64(TM) System Implementations

MIPS Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:MIPS - news; Nasdaq:MIPSB - news) and Green Hills Software, Inc. today announced a partnership that will increase system developers' ability to get to market faster through a jointly developed, best-in-class software development environment that is fully optimized for the industry-standard MIPS32(TM) and MIPS64(TM) architectures.

This fully integrated, end-to-end software environment integrates Green Hills Software's award-winning MULTI® Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with timing accurate simulators from MIPS Technologies, a new high performance hardware debug probe, operating systems support across a wide range of applications, as well as select components from third parties. The integrated tool set delivers a complete out-of-the-box solution for MIPS Technologies licensees, SOC developers and end users.

The new product, now being demonstrated globally in pre-release form, provides a complete, fully integrated software environment for currently available and announced cores from MIPS Technologies, as well as application-specific extensions (ASEs) to the MIPS® architecture standard. The full release, commercially available by year's end, will support the entire development process, including simulation, codesign and coverification, board bring-up, application development, and field support. Subsequent enhancements are planned and a joint engineering team comprised of engineers from both companies is actively engaged in defining the next release.

"In order to adjust to shrinking market windows, customers require a systems approach to SOC development that combines leading microprocessor solutions and a fully integrated and highly optimized best-in-class tool chain," said Michael Uhler, vice president of architecture and software products at MIPS Technologies. "Green Hills Software's tools technology represents today's best total solution for MIPS-based embedded development. Our partnership builds upon their technology to further provide our customers with the solution that they need. System developers who have seen the early results of our combined efforts are very pleased, and we are enthusiastic about building a complete solution for MIPS-based development on that platform."

Mike Wolf, general manager of Green Hills Software's advanced products engineering group adds, "Our companies have worked together for a long time, but in this partnership we're working in a more synergistic way. By putting our engineering resources together, doing joint planning, and leveraging our tools expertise and MIPS Technologies' design expertise, we've created a new model for delivering premier tools to customers."

"As a MIPS Technologies architecture licensee, IDT is extremely focused on ensuring the availability of comprehensive software development tools for our customers," said Ian Ferguson, strategic marketing manager at IDT. "We see this partnership as very beneficial for our customers as it should mean that their time to market is greatly improved."

From simulation to OEM system deployment, Green Hills Software's MULTI IDE saves time throughout a project development lifecycle with its powerful features, efficient design and by eliminating the need for engineers to learn different tools and user interfaces. Additionally, complete support for the entire MIPS32 and MIPS64 product lines eliminates the need for software engineers to change tools in the middle of projects, or when they use different MIPS-based(TM) cores on different projects. While at the same time, complete integration of MIPS Technologies simulator now makes it possible to develop complete, cycle-accurate application models before cores are realized in silicon, enabling a true systems approach to development. Green Hills Software's operating system support for MIPS-based cores includes their own maximum-reliability INTEGRITY(TM) operating system and the small, fast ThreadX® RTOS, both offered royalty-free. Green Hills Software also provides task-aware and kernel-aware debugging for these and other operating systems including VxWorks, Linux, and OSE.

Availability

The initial release, scheduled for the end of this year, will include complete support for all MIPS32- and MIPS64-based core families and will span all phases of system software design. The release includes:

• Green Hills Software Optimizing C/C++/EC++ compilers
• Green Hills Software MULTI Integrated Development Environment, including builder, editor, debugger, profiler and version control
• Simulation-, cycle- and instruction-set accurate simulators, fully integrated within MULTI
• Green Hills Probe(TM) hardware debug interface, with download speeds in excess of 200Kbytes/sec
• INTEGRITY and ThreadX royalty free RTOSes, with BSP support for the MIPS Malta(TM) software development board and SEAD(TM)SOC integration board
• MULTI support for third-party real-time operating systems including VxWorks, Linux, and OSE
• Communication protocols and other development tools from Green Hills Software's and MIPS Technologies' software partners

Subsequent releases are being planned that will add more functionality and support new MIPS Technologies cores and ASEs.

About Green Hills Software

Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software, Inc., the technology leader for real-time operating systems and software development tools for 32- and 64-bit embedded systems. Green Hills Software's royalty-free INTEGRITY(TM) and ThreadX® real-time operating systems, fully integrated with its market leading compilers and MULTI® 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, CA, with European 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.

About MIPS Technologies

MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and network applications. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and can be reached at +1 (650) 567-5000 or www.mips.com.

MIPS® is a registered trademark and MIPS-based(TM), MIPS32(TM), MIPS64(TM), Malta(TM) and SEAD(TM) are trademarks of MIPS Technologies, Inc. in the United States and others countries. Green Hills, the Green Hills logo and MULTI® are registered trademarks, and Green Hills Probe(TM), ThreadX(TM) and INTEGRITY(TM) are trademarks of Green Hills Software, Inc. All other trademarks referred to herein are the property of their respective owners.

     MIPS Technologies, Inc.
     Lee Garvin Flanagin, 650/567-5180
     flanagin@mips.com
        or
     Green Hills Software, Inc.
     Lynn J. Robinson, 805/965-6044
     lynnr@ghs.com