ARM is shipping a new version of its graphical development toolset. RealView Development Suite (RVDS) 3.0 offers a unified, end-to-end toolchain for coincident hardware and software development, and is optimized for system performance and Linux application compilation, according to ARM.

RVDS 3.0 aims to speed both hardware and software development, in part through support for target simulation models generated by ARM's “Create” family of ESL (electronic system level) development tools, the other branch of ARM's RealView product family tree.

RVDS product family and design flow

RVDS 3.0 adds support for all of ARM's newest processor cores, including its multi-core MPCore and Cortex CPUs. It also offers an updated debugger with “multicore DSP awareness,” ARM says. Other improvements include a compiler that benchmarks 10 percent better, and optional integration with Eclipse tools.

ARM Fellow David Rusling, director of technology for ARM's development systems, stated, “For the RealView Development Suite 3.0, we focused on three key benefits: providing an end-to-end tool flow; enabling integration with key ARM technologies as well as Eclipse and Linux; and optimizing system performance and compilation of Linux applications.”

Jim Ready, CEO of MontaVista Software, stated, “With the RealView Development Suite 3.0, our customers can achieve significant code size reduction for Linux applications. For the OEM, this saves money by allowing a smaller memory footprint, which reduces build cost. For the consumer, this offers longer battery life for mobile products.”

Daya Nadamuni, a senior analyst at Gartner Dataquest, stated, “Taking advantage of ESL tools for architectural exploration and system simulation is one of the highest-value activities that systems designers can undertake. It facilitates an optimized design, with functions appropriately apportioned between hardware and software, and allows true pre-silicon software development.”

Availability

The ARM RealView Development Suite 3.0 is available now. ARM Partners upgrading from RVDS 2.2 with valid support and maintenance contracts are entitled to a 30 percent discount, according to the company. Further details on upgrades and pricing are available from ARM and its distributors.

 
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