Ashling toolset provides NEXUS-standard debugging for Motorola’s new MPC565 automotive and industrial processor

San Francisco, California, March 13, 2002: At the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco today, Ashling Microsystems announced availability of a full set of development and debug tools, based on the NEXUS interface standard, for Motorola's newly-introduced MPC565 PowerPC embedded processor.

The new MPC565 device is part of Motorola's MPC500 family, targeted at automobile powertrain and industrial applications. With 1MB of flash memory on-chip, three timer-processor units, three CAN ports, dual queued analog-to-digital converters and a 32-bit RISC core with floating point unit, the MPC565 is designed to provide the high performance, flexibility and ease of use that embedded system design engineers need, together with additional bandwidth to tackle complex control functions.

Ashling has introduced a full range of emulation, debug, trace and probing tools to support the MPC565. By applying Ashling's powerful real-time debug technology, the Ashling tools design team has ensured that users of the new Motorola embedded microprocessor can benefit from a powerful and flexible development and debug toolset from the outset.

Significantly, to assist the software development task Motorola has implemented a NEXUS debug port on the MPC565. This is the industry's first implementation of the new IEEE-ISTO 5001™-1999 "NEXUS" Standard for a Global Embedded Processor Debug Interface.

By basing the MPC565's debug resources on the powerful NEXUS standards and protocol, Motorola has ensured a fast route to market for developers. In conjunction with NEXUS tools from Ashling, developers are assured of the most powerful debugging environment available.  Given the complexity of the MPC565's 32-bit core architecture and its vast array of on-chip peripherals, the developer relies heavily on extremely powerful debug tools with full code and data trace capabilities.  The Ashling solution gives all of this in a compact, scaleable and reusable emulation and trace platform.

Commenting on the introduction of the new products, Michael Healy, CEO of Ashling Microsystems, Inc., in Sunnyvale, California, said "Through both companies' active participation in the NEXUS Forum, Motorola and Ashling have played critical roles in the definition of the NEXUS specification. Close co-operation with Motorola and with our customers has allowed Ashling to offer the best-in-class tools for NEXUS-based debug.  The success of this partnership means that automotive embedded control systems designers are already using Ashling NEXUS debug and trace tools across the globe, including the USA, Europe and the Far East."
 

With its NEXUS Class 3 debug port, the MPC565 device allows the Ashling emulator and debugger to access the microprocessor "on-the-fly" without intrusion on program execution, to monitor or change variables, trace program flow or alter calibration tables.

The new Ashling toolset, available now, delivers the essential tools for embedded development, hardware/software integration and testing on the new Motorola embedded microprocessor. The full Ashling support range for MPC565 includes the "Vitra" networked emulator and trace platform, "Genia" networked emulator and "Opella" parallel-port emulator, together with Ashling's flagship "PathFinder" Source Debugger.

Note to Editors: A photo is available to accompany this announcement

About Ashling Microsystems:
Ashling Microsystems (founded in 1985) designs and manufactures In-Circuit Emulators, JTAG/BDM Emulators, Smart Card development tools, source debuggers and Software Quality Assurance tools. Ashling's major-account customers include Motorola, Delphi Delco, Alcatel, IBM, Gemplus, Xerox, Sony, Lexmark, Visa, Hewlett-Packard, GE and Eaton.

Ashling's R&D Center is in Limerick, Ireland. The company's North America Sales and Support Center is in Sunnyvale, California, with sales subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and France and distributors throughout the world.

Editorial Contact: Ashling
Michael Healy
Ashling Microsystems, Inc.
1270 Oakmead Parkway, Ste. 208
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

Tel:  (408) 732 6490
Fax: (408) 732 6497
Email: michael.healy@ashling.com

Product Information Contact: Ashling
Tony Garvey
Ashling Microsystems
National Technological Park
Limerick
Ireland

Tel: +353-61-334466
Fax: +353-61-334477
Email: tony.garvey@ashling.com