Product category: Embedded Software and Operating Systems
News Release from: Green Hills Software | Subject: AltiVec compiler
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 27 June 2001
Compiler exploits PowerPC vector coprocessor
Green Hills Software has a new compiler for its Multi IDE that provides automatic vectorisation support for Motorola PowerPC processors equipped with the AltiVec vector-processing engine.
Note: A free brochure or catalogue is available from Green Hills Software on the products in this news release. Click here to request a copy.
Green Hills Software has announced a new compiler for its Multi integrated development environment (IDE) that provides automatic vectorisation support for Motorola PowerPC processors equipped with the AltiVec vector-processing engine. The new compiler converts ordinary C code into optimised AltiVec object code, enabling designers to achieve a two- to fourfold increase in vector processing performance without having to write custom AltiVec source code. AltiVec is a SIMD (single instruction multiple data) processing engine for Motorola PowerPC processors that enhances performance for compute-intensive applications such as imaging, signal processing and networking, by processing up to sixteen data elements per clock cycle.
Using a 32word register file (128bit words) for data storage, the SIMD engine uses 162 distinct instructions to process data 128bit at a time.
These 128bit vectors may be organised as four 32bit, eight 16bit or sixteen 8bit elements.
For example, the AltiVec engine can load, store, add or subtract four 32bit integer or floating-point data elements every clock cycle.
Until now, programmers who wanted to take full advantage of AltiVec's high-speed vector processing capabilities had to add special AltiVec instructions to their C programs or write AltiVec-specific assembly language code.
Green Hills' new compiler eliminates the need to write specialised AltiVec code in C or assembly language.
Instead, the compiler analyses the user's C program, identifies code sequences that can benefit from SIMD processing and then generates object code for optimal execution on the AltiVec processor.
Generally, these sequences are the inner loops of computationally demanding DSP algorithms such as vector multiply, dot product, and matrix multiply.
The compiler's autovectorisation implementation offers an easy-to-use compile-time option.
If the option is selected, the compiled code is tailored to use AltiVec vector operations wherever the compiler can determine that the programmer intends such operations.
If the option is not selected no AltiVec vector operations will be employed in the generated object code produced by the compiler.
In either case, the source code remains unchanged, and portable to other PowerPC processors.
Green Hills' optimising C/C++ compiler is part of the Multi 2000 integrated development environment, which automates all aspects of software development for PowerPC microprocessors.
Featuring a window-oriented editor, RTOS-aware source-level debugger, and graphical program builder, Multi 2000 also includes a run-time error checker, version control system, and performance profiler.
An instruction set simulator allows programmers to develop and test PowerPC code on a PC or workstation without the need for the target hardware.
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