Renesas Electronics and Green Hills Software Collaborate to Jointly Develop Basic Software for CPU Virtualization Technology Enabling Real-Time Control

TOKYO, Japan, Santa Barbara, U.S, December 8, 2010 — Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Green Hills Software, the largest independent vendor of embedded software solutions, today announced its collaboration to jointly develop basic software supporting CPU virtualization technology suitable for real-time control applications as well as a software development environment.

Through the collaboration, Renesas Electronics will develop added functions necessary for the efficient operation of virtualization software enabling high-speed real-time control and improving the usability of the software development environment, incorporating these functions into microcontrollers (MCUs) with V850 CPU core.

Green Hills Software will port the MULTI® Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which includes components such as a compiler and a debugger that already support Renesas Electronics' V850 core. The new CPU virtualization technology will provide support for software that enables multiple applications to run independently and simultaneously on a single CPU, such as the INTEGRITY® RTOS (real time operating system).

The Green Hills IDE will generate compact and high-speed instruction code optimized for the CPU virtualization technology provided by Renesas Electronics' V850 core. When combined with virtualization software such as INTEGRITY Secure Virtualization, which support safety standards such as IEC 61508 (Note 1), the software development environment will deliver the means to develop and implement with high efficiency applications with excellent functional safety. There are also plans to include support for the emerging ISO 26262 functional safety standard.

Renesas Electronics has been developing CPU virtualization technology for the V850 architecture to enable control of multiple systems with a single CPU core without mutual interference, allowing high-speed and composite control in fields such as industrial machinery and automotive systems, where real-time control is essential.

Green Hills Software has made a contribution to facilitating design procedures in virtualized environments through its virtualization software and the software development environment.

Renesas Electronics considers a full-fledged software development environment incorporating basic software that allows efficient use of virtualization technology to be essential, and holds Green Hills Software in high regard as a prominent developer of virtualization software and software development environments, as well as a valuable collaborator since 1994 in efforts to enhance the software development environment for the V850 core. Green Hills Software, for its part, considers Renesas to be a supplier of innovative and high-quality semiconductor products in the control CPU field. This mutual esteem forms the background for the present collaboration agreement.

The software development environment will be available through Green Hills Software as part of the MULTI product family.

• (Note 1) IEC 61508 An international standard for the “functional safety” of electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic equipment.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world's number one supplier of microcontrollers, is a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Business operations began as Renesas Electronics in April 2010 through the integration of NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723) and Renesas Technology Corp., with operations spanning research, development, design and manufacturing for a wide range of applications. Headquartered in Japan, Renesas Electronics has subsidiaries in 20 countries worldwide. More information can be found at www.renesas.com.

About Green Hills Software

Founded in 1982, Green Hills Software, Inc. is the largest independent vendor of embedded development solutions. In 2008, the Green Hills INTEGRITY-178B RTOS was the first and only operating system to be certified by NIAP (National Information Assurance Partnership comprised of NSA & NIST) to EAL6+ High Robustness, the highest level of security ever achieved for any software product. Our open architecture integrated development solutions address deeply embedded, absolute security and high-reliability applications for the military/avionics, medical, industrial, automotive, networking, consumer and other markets that demand industry-certified solutions. Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with European headquarters in the United Kingdom. Visit Green Hills Software at www.ghs.com.