FS2 Introduces System Navigator with PDtrace for MIPS32 24K Debug

Complete next generation EJTAG debug for development with MIPS 24K cores.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2005 -- First Silicon Solutions (FS2®) and MIPS Technologies, Inc.(NASDAQ: MIPS) announced today the availability of the FS2 System Navigator, a comprehensive suite of next generation EJTAG debug and trace tools for the MIPS32® 24K® cores. The MIPS32 24K cores are the highest performing 400MHz to 625MHz32-bit synthesizable processor cores in the embedded market today with a growing range of customers in the digital consumer, networking and office automation markets.

MIPS32 24K cores are now available with the powerful PDtrace™ (Program and Data Trace) option for faster development and debug of 24K core applications. The MIPS Technologies’ PDtrace system, coupled with the FS2 System Navigator, provides best-in-class debug capabilities for 24K designs by allowing customers to concurrently capture and view execution flow, load/store addresses and the associated data. With PDtrace, users can choose either on-chip trace capture or stream the trace data off-chip to the FS2 System Navigator. Off-chip trace streaming saves on-chip memory resources and provides for deeper trace depths with 128K 64-bit frames.

“This latest development extends the long and successful relationship we’ve had with FS2,” said Russ Bell, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies. “The combination of PDtrace with fully integrated development tools is invaluable for developers using MIPS32 24K cores. These tools will make it easier for our customers to get maximum performance from their cores, while meeting their design goals with faster time to market.”

Rick Leatherman, president of FS2 added, “FS2 has worked with MIPS Technologies to develop the highest performance debug system for MIPS cores. Feature rich FS2 tools make software debugging faster and easier than ever before to help MIPS developers accelerate getting their designs and applications to market.”

FS2 System Navigator tools support the complete MIPS32 and MIPS64® processor core families. They also provide support for multi-core debugging and interface to the FS2 MED® (Multi-core Embedded Debug) system for more complex SoC designs. The FS2 debug environment is extensible to heterogeneous multi-core debugging applications, such as integrating systems analysis of multiple MIPS and DSP cores, or trace of OCP, AMBA or custom bus interfaces.

FS2 System Navigator and MIPS Tools with GDB/Insight Provide Powerful Debug Capability

FS2 System Navigator functions have been integrated with the GDB/Insight debugger distributed by MIPS Technologies as part of the GNU-based MIPS SDE toolchain. The seamless operation of the FS2 tools with the GDB/Insight debugger ensures a comprehensive software development environment with sophisticated features, ease of use, and minimal cost to the developer.

FS2 System Navigator software includes several features designed to fully support PDtrace and the System Navigator probes. These features allow the user to view the original GNU source code with function names and line numbers mixed into the assembly code. When viewing the trace display, the executed addresses are displayed along with assembly instructions. In addition to tracing code flow, the trace can also display load/store cycles, which are useful in seeing code and data flow as the code executes, and what conditional code and variable values caused the changes.

FS2 System Navigator is available with USB 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet (optional) and IEEE Parallel PC interfaces. It connects to the MIPS target using the standard EJTAG 14-pin connector for on-chip trace or a 38-pin Mictor connector for off-chip trace capture. The FS2 System Navigator Family provides a wide range of compact, feature-rich, debug tools at affordable price points for all MIPS system developers.

Availability

FS2 System Navigator for MIPS cores is available now. Contact FS2 or visit http://www.fs2.com for information.

About First Silicon Solutions (FS2)

FS2 specializes in custom silicon IP, design services and OCI® (On-Chip Instrumentation) development tools for programming, testing and debug of embedded systems in FPGA, SoC, SOPC, ASSP and ASIC devices. FS2 OCI based products include CLAM® (Configurable Logic Analyzer Modules) based Logic Navigator™ and Bus Navigator™ tools for IP debug, core specific System Navigator tools for processor debug and trace, and MED® (Multi-core Embedded Debug) tools for SoC debug. FS2 products enable silicon vendors and their customers to develop and more effectively market their products, reduce development cycles, allowing them to focus on delivering all the potential of the system on silicon. Additional information about FS2 is available at http://www.fs2.com.

About MIPS Technologies

MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and business applications. The company drives the broadest architectural alliance that is delivering 32- and 64-bit embedded RISC solutions. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers and system OEMs. MIPS Technologies and its licensees offer the widest range of robust, scalable processors in standard, custom, semi-custom and application-specific products. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., and can be reached at +1 650 567-5000 or http://www.mips.com.

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FS2, FS2 System Navigator, MED, and OCI are trademarks of First Silicon Solutions, Inc. MIPS, MIPS32, MIPS64, 24K, and PDtrace are trademarks or registered trademarks of MIPS Technologies, Inc. in the United States and other countries.