Leuven, Belgium - June 8, 1999.  At the 36th Design Automation Conference later this month, Target Compiler Technologies ('Target') will launch a new service for its customers, called 'Checkmate'. Through this service, Target will be able to create affordable tool-kits for end-users of DSP processors designed with Chess/Checkers, Target's retargetable compilation environment.

The Chess/Checkers environment was introduced by Target in November of 1998. It consists of the following retargetable tools: a C compiler (Chess), a linker (Bridge), an instruction-set simulator (Checkers) and an assembler and disassembler (Darts). Users can specify their DSP architecture in nML, a high-level processor modelling language. Automatically the Chess/Checkers tools will work for the specified DSP. Chess/Checkers is primarily being used to develop new DSP architectures for various application-domains. The tools offers unique exploration capabilities: alternative DSP architectures can be compared quickly by describing them in nML and evaluating their performance for the application domain, using the Chess/Checkers tools.

Once a DSP architecture has been developed with Chess/Checkers, the processor designer can call on Target's new Checkmate service, to have a tool-kit made for this DSP. "The processor designer supplies Target with the processor model of the DSP, from which Target will then create a tool-kit containing a compiler, a linker, an instruction-set simulator and an assembler and disassembler for this particular processor," said Dirk Lanneer, Target's R&D Manager. "These tools have the same functionality as the retargetable tools in the Chess/Checkers distribution, except that they only work for the specified DSP and can therefore not be re-targeted anymore to other architectures." According to Lanneer, "the creation of the tool-kit can typically be done in a few days of time."

According to Gert Goossens, Target's General Manager, the processor-specific tool-kits created by the Checkmate service are intended for the processor's end-users, who want to implement their applications on the new DSP. "The quick availability of a DSP tool-kit is a prerequisite for the successful introduction of a new DSP in the market place," Goossens said. "Our main customers are design teams who are using the retargetable Chess/Checkers tools to develop new DSP architectures. However, the end-users of a DSP typically have less need for retargetability. They require support tools that generate efficient code for their target processor and that are easily affordable. So far, the ability to create those processor-specific tool-kits was a missing link in our business model."