***MIPS Technologies announces integrated toolset
(March 4)
MIPS Technologies announced an initiative that will yield a
unified framework for MIPS RISC processor development tools. The
MIPS RISC Integrated Development Framework, or MIPS IDF, is
intended to accelerate the development of tool chains for the
MIPS RISC platform and enable developers to cut NRE costs and
speed development. The framework will allow any IDF compatible
tool to be integrated with any other IDF tool anywhere in the
development tool chain. MIPS Technologies will work with leading
development tool vendors to create and maintain the interface
standards, or application programming interfaces (APIs) that will
define the framework. The framework and APIs is intended to cut
the time and effort currently required by embedded systems
developers to access and integrate tools from different vendors.
At the same time, it should simplify the tasks faced by the
development tool vendor and enable them to provide their tools to
the market faster.
Tools such as integrated development environments (IDEs),
optimized compilers, debuggers, real-time operating systems, on-
board target monitors, performance analyzers, in-circuit
emulators, on-chip debuggers and many more are being used today
to solve development problems. The MIPS RISC architecture has
over 60 tool vendors providing powerful development and debug
tools for the MIPS RISC platform. But the task facing the
embedded system developer is significant. Mixing and matching
tools from different suppliers is difficult because each vendor
will typically use their own interface standard.
On the other hand, tool vendors face an equally daunting problem.
In order to sell their specialized tools, they must ensure that
those tools connect smoothly to a wide variety of non-standard
development environments. Achieving critical mass in the market
is a time consuming and detail-intensive process that detract
them from their main objective - improving the quality and
performance of their development tools.
MIPS Technologies is currently working with a number of
development tool vendors to ensure that the Integrated
Development Framework is consistent with both existing
technologies and emerging development tool technologies.
Companies announcing support include:
- Cygnus
- MIPS Technologies
- Wind River
- Express Logic
- Accelerated Technology
- Corelis
Wave Issue 9036 4/6/99 Article 7-01