IAR Systems has boosted the effectiveness of its compilers for ARM's Cortex M3 processor.
We have optimised the C and C++ compiler," spokesman Edward Gibbins told Electronics Weekly. "Applications will now run approximately 20% faster."
The upgrade comes along with version 5.20 of the IAR Embedded Workbench. "This version of the tools for ARM-based devices includes a significant number of improvements focussing on the M3 core," said IAR.
On the debug side, trace packets over the Cortex CoreSight trace and debug facility SWO channel are now supported, and the user can configure the types of packets displayed by the IAR C-Spy debugger.
A multi-file compilation feature now treats several files as one compilation unit "which means it can optimise over a larger scope of code", said IAR.
Alongside m3 enhancements in v5.20 is an evaluation edition of the firm's PowerPac RTOS (real-time operating system), file system, and TCP/IP and USB stack bundle.
This announcement was made at the Embedded Systems Show in Birmingham, where Atmel also had M3 news: revealing that is Cortex M3-based microcontrollers will emerge in the first quarter next year.
Atmel M3s have been expected since the company announced taking a licence from ARM in June.
Cortex M3, at the lower end of ARM's 32bit performance range optimised but optimised to be cheap, has probably cause more excitement than of its other cores back to the ARM7TDMI, the first important ARM with 16-bit Thumb instructions.
Existing stand-alone M3 microcontroller makers include Luminary Micro, with a huge range for such a young company, and ST.
Add to this NXP which announced it was getting into M3 in February, and start-up Energy Micro which claims to have a super low power version in the pipeline.
Away from ARM processors, RTOS firm Green Hills announced support for Intel's single-core Atom N270 at the Show.
"The solution includes the Integrity RTOS, Multi integrated development environment, optimising C and C++ compilers, and a static analyser.
Embedded end-applications for this Atom are expected to include industrial control, mobile thin clients, human-machine interfaces and print imaging.
For companies using its tools in the development of flight-critical and drive-critical software, Green Hills also announced achieving a CMMI Maturity level 3 rating.
See also: Electronics Weekly's focus on microprocessors, a roundup of content on microprocessor technologies and developments not related to the x86 architecture (from ARM, Texas Instruments and MIPS).