SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- Jan 19, 2006 --
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), a leading
developer of Windows-based electronics design software, today announced
support for a range of discrete 32-bit ARM® technology-based processors
in Altium Designer 6.0, the latest version of its unified electronic
product development system. Altium Designer integrates board- and
FPGA-level system development, embedded software development and PCB
layout, editing and manufacture within a single, unified application.
Altium Designer makes it fast and easy for engineers to develop and debug
FPGA-based systems using soft processor cores implemented inside a
programmable device using an interactive design methodology called
LiveDesign. Now, with the recent release of Altium Designer 6.0, LiveDesign
is extended to the development of systems that use a discrete processor,
such as the ARM720T™ processor-based Sharp® BlueStreak™ LH79520,
connected to an FPGA. This speeds the development of ARM processor systems
by allowing engineers to utilize the programmable resources of an FPGA to
extend processor functionality and easily implement system components and
logic.
Altium Designer 6.0 includes a full software tool chain for ARM
technology-based processors that supports the ARM7™, ARM9™, ARM9E™
and ARM10E™ processor families. The software development tools are based
on Altium's advanced Viper compiler technology, which is used across all
processors supported by the Altium Designer system. This provides full
C-code compatibility between processors, and produces fast, highly
optimized object code. Initial benchmarking indicates that the Viper-based
ARM compiler, included as a standard with Altium Designer 6.0, provides
performance comparable with leading stand-alone professional compiler
solutions. This gives Altium Designer customers the highest quality ARM
code generation capabilities as part of their unified development
environment.
"ARM technology-based processors are extensively used in a diverse range of
applications from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions
to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices," commented Nick
Martin, founder and CEO, Altium. "The provision of ARM support in Altium
Designer brings new possibilities to designers of ARM Powered® devices in
all these industries."
At the hardware level, Altium Designer 6.0 includes a special FPGA-based
'wrapper' core that allows designers to easily target Sharp's BlueStreak
LH79520 ARM720T core-based processor. The wrapper provides hardware-level
design compatibility with Altium Designer's native cross-device 32-bit soft
processor -- the TSK3000, and allows designers to easily switch between the
TSK3000 and a discrete LH79520 processor with only minimal modification to
the hardware design. It allows engineers using the BlueStreak to take
advantage of Altium Designer's range of included FPGA-based peripherals by
providing a Wishbone OpenBus connection with the processor, and facilitates
full source-level code debugging. The wrapper core also allows the use of
Altium Designer's FPGA-based virtual instruments for interactive hardware
debugging -- LiveDesign. Similar wrapper cores are included to support the
hard PowerPC® available with Xilinx® Virtex®-2 Pro FPGAs, the Xilinx
MicroBlaze™ soft processor, and discrete PowerPC processors.
The LH79520 is the first in a number of ARM technology-based and other
additional processor wrappers that will be introduced into Altium Designer
to support the easy targeting of a wide range of third-party processors.
"This addition to Sharp's line of support tools for its BlueStreak
processors demonstrates our commitment to providing engineers with
integrated comprehensive solutions that facilitate the electronics design
and development process," says Scott Robertson, Senior Manager, Systems and
Software Engineering of Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas.
"Recognizing the growing demand for advanced FPGA systems, Altium
Designer's unified design/development platform supports the Sharp LH79520's
integration in these complex designs. Additionally, Altium's global
distribution network will allow Sharp customers in all markets to benefit
-- speeding time to market and lowering development costs."
The provision of both hardware and software compatibility between
processors means designers can easily migrate designs between execution
platforms. They can, for example, use the TSK3000 for initial
device-independent system development wholly within an FPGA device, and
then switch to the LH79520 discrete processor at the prototype stage to
take advantage of the high performance of these devices.
"Large-scale programmable devices such as today's FPGAs are changing the
way engineers think about electronic product development," Nick Martin
continued. "With Altium Designer 6.0 we've extended the reach of Altium
Designer and its LiveDesign methodology to systems using discrete
processors. This allows our customers to easily migrate designs from soft
processors, and take advantage of the high performance available with
devices like the Sharp BlueStreak."
To support the development of ARM technology-based systems, Altium will be
releasing a new daughterboard for its unique NanoBoard LiveDesign
development board that features a Sharp BlueStreak LH79520 MCU coupled to a
Xilinx Spartan™-3 FPGA. The NanoBoard is a versatile 'nano-level
breadboard' that integrates with Altium Designer to provide a full
LiveDesign implementation and interactive debugging environment for
FPGA-based system design. The NanoBoard features swappable daughter boards
that house the target programmable devices and other resources, allowing
development for multiple FPGA and processors architectures on the same
basic platform. Release timing for the new daughterboard will be announced
shortly.
About Altium Limited
Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) is a global developer and supplier of electronics
design software for the Microsoft Windows environment. Founded in 1985,
Altium released the world's first Microsoft Windows-based printed circuit
board design tool in 1991, and continues to provide advanced, easy-to-use
and affordable software design tools for complete electronic product
development to electronics engineers, designers, and developers worldwide.
Altium is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with sales and support
offices in Australia, the United States, Japan, China and Europe -- and
maintains a large reseller network in all other major markets. For more
information please visit www.altium.com.
About Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas, Camas, Washington, is a U.S.-based
company and a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, which is a
subsidiary of Sharp Corporation, Osaka, Japan. Sharp is a worldwide
developer of core digital technologies that are playing an integral role in
shaping the next generation of electronic products for consumer and
business needs. Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas offers breakthrough
memory, LCD, optoelectronics, CCD, RF/IR, microcomputer and system-on-chip
components, along with packaging and integration skills that help design
engineers throughout North and South America bring their ambitious ideas to
market. Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas is dedicated to improving
people's lives through the use of advanced technology and a commitment to
innovation, quality, value and design. For more information visit
www.sharpsma.com.
Altium, Altium Designer, Board Insight, CAMtastic, CircuitStudio, Design
Explorer, DXP, LiveDesign, NanoBoard, NanoTalk, Nexar, nVisage, P-CAD,
Protel, Situs, TASKING, and Topological Autorouting and their respective
logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Altium Limited or its
subsidiaries. 'PowerPC' is a registered trademark of IBM Corp. 'Sharp' and
'BlueStreak' are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Electronics
Corp. 'Xilinx,' 'MicroBlaze,' 'Spartan' and 'Virtex' are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Xilinx, Inc. All other registered or unregistered
trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners,
and no trademark rights to the same are claimed.
ARM and ARM Powered are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM7,
ARM720T, ARM9, ARM9E and ARM10E are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other
brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM"
is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited;
and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan;
ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Belgium N.V.; AXYS
Design Automation Inc.; AXYS GmbH; ARM Embedded Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; and
ARM Physical IP, Inc.
U.S. Media Contact:
Khyati Shah
Edelman
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Mountain View, CA 94040
USA
www.edelman.com
Telephone: 650-429-2769
Fax: 650-625-1468
Email: Email Contact
Corporate Media Contact:
Elisa Davies
Altium Limited
Level 3, 12a Rodborough Road
Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086
Australia
www.altium.com
Telephone: +61 2 9975 7710
Fax: +61 2 9975 7720
Email: Email Contact