Metrowerks Provides Industry's First Toolset for Motorola's Highly Integrated MPC5500 Device Family

DETROIT, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CONVERGENCE CONFERENCE -- Helping developers simplify and speed application development for high- performance microcontrollers, Metrowerks, a Motorola company (NYSE: MOT), plans to ship CodeWarrior(TM) development tools for the MPC5500 product family, Motorola's next generation of products compliant with the PowerPC instruction set.

Metrowerks' CodeWarrior Development Studio for MPC5500, expected to be available in April 2003, offers the industry's first tightly integrated tool suite for the MPC5500 family of 32-bit embedded microcontrollers, and contains advanced tools from several of the industry's leading vendors.

The product includes a GUI tool for system initialization, a highly optimized C compiler for the core and the Enhanced Time Processing Unit (eTPU), an advanced multi-core simulator, a powerful multi-core debugger, analysis tools (trace and profiler), data visualization tools, Nexus support, flash programming support, and the Metrowerks OSEK turbo real-time operating system (RTOS).

In addition, Metrowerks will offer a broad portfolio of low-level driver software that provides an established software base to develop control functionality and timing systems to help ease development processes for OEMs.

"With the next generation of the MPC5500 family, we have placed significant focus on ensuring that industry leading tools are available to help simplify and speed system design," said Franz Fink, general manager, Motorola 32-bit Embedded Controller Division. "Metrowerks is delivering the first and most comprehensive suite of hardware and software development tools for the MPC5500 family, allowing us to help shorten our customers' development cycles."

The MPC5500 devices are designed to offer system performance of up to five times higher than its predecessors, even more embedded Flash memory, enhanced timing mechanisms, and a superior peripheral set.

"Interoperability is a huge issue for the transportation industry, as companies that cannot adapt will be quickly outpaced," said Jim Welch, president and CEO, Metrowerks. "With the ability to interoperate with a wide range of tools and systems required to support modern software development processes, Metrowerks, along with key industry partners, is the leading choice for complex embedded systems development."

Metrowerks plans to provide a migration path to the MPC5500 family for users of the popular MPC500 family.

Support for Ashling and Lauterbach Development Platforms

In related news, Metrowerks also announced relationships with two leading vendors of embedded development platforms based on the PowerPC instruction set.

As part of Metrowerks' extensive support of key embedded platforms, CodeWarrior development tools can now be used as part of an MPC5xx development system using development platforms from Lauterbach Datentechnik, a key industry supplier of hardware and debug platforms.

Beginning January 2003, Metrowerks plans to distribute embedded emulation systems based on the PowerPC instruction set on behalf of Ashling Microsystems, Ltd. As part of the agreement, CodeWarrior tools will include a Nexus interface capability, which extends the interoperability of the development environment.

About the Nexus 5001 Forum(TM) Standard

The Nexus 5001 Forum Standard is an open industry standard that provides a general-purpose interface for software development and debug of embedded processors. The previous lack of a unified standard debug interface among the embedded processors on the market today has prevented software vendors from developing tools that can be used consistently across a broad range of processors.

Adoption of the standard is expected to greatly improve the development, debug, qualification and tuning of embedded controller applications and benefit customers' choice and reuse of their 5001 compliant development tools on compliant processor architectures from different manufacturers.

About Metrowerks

Metrowerks creates CodeWarrior software and hardware products and services for developers, with a particular focus on the following industries: consumer electronics; transportation; wireless; and networking and communications. The CodeWarrior product line includes hardware and software development tools and middleware that enable customers to decrease their time to market. The company also offers services, including training and custom software development. Founded in 1985, Metrowerks is today an independently operating subsidiary of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT). Metrowerks corporate headquarters are in Austin, Texas; Metrowerks Europe is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland; and Metrowerks Japan is headquartered in Tokyo. For more information, please visit http://www.metrowerks.com/ .

About Motorola

As the world's #1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector creates DigitalDNA(TM) system-on-chip solutions for a connected world. Our strong focus on wireless communications and networking enables customers to develop smarter, simpler, faster and synchronized products for the person, work team, home and automobile. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $4.9 billion (USD) in 2001. www.motorola.com/semiconductors

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2001 were $30 billion. For more information please visit www.motorola.com .

Metrowerks and CodeWarrior are trademarks of Metrowerks Corp in the US and other countries. MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks of Motorola, Inc. All other tradenames and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.