Castle Launch a Subscription Based RISC OS C/C++ Development

29th April 2004

CASTLE LAUNCH A SUBSCRIPTION BASED RISC OS C/C++ DEVELOPMENT SUITE.

Following on from the successful launch of the 32bit compatible RISC OS
C/C++ Development Suite in October 2002, Castle announce today that it 
will be offering future upgrades to the development suite on a 
subscription basis for just £59 per annum inc vat (reduced to £45* if 
paid by direct debit, before 31st May 2004). New purchases of the 
development suite at a RRP of £199 inc vat will include a subscription 
for the first year.

This step aims to ensure that RISC OS developers see a continuous flow 
of improvements to the development suite, providing better code density 
and performance for RISC OS applications than ever before. In addition 
features introduced into ARM development tools in the embedded world 
over the last few years will now be brought to the RISC OS platform for 
the first time.

Highlights due for immediate release include the addition of an "inline
assembler" and "packed structure support" to the compiler. The "inline 
assembler" allows the use of features of the ARM processor that cannot 
otherwise be accessed from C/C++ and in some circumstances allows the 
generation of more efficient code. Packing structures removes the 
padding normally inserted into structures that align the elements of the 
structure onto their natural size boundary (e.g. int on 32-bit boundary, 
short on 16-bit boundary). This allows structures to be mapped more 
efficiently onto external data items (such as data being received off a 
network).

Later in 2004 Castle expect to release a version of the compiler 
containing a revamped optimiser. One of the main features that this will 
provide will be support for instruction scheduling. This will give the 
compiler a knowledge of the instruction pipeline of the target 
processor, allowing it to avoid the generation of instruction sequences 
that cause processor interlocks where the processor has to wait for 
previous instructions to fully complete before continuing. This is 
expected to give a noticeable performance improvement for compiled code 
running on both StrongARM and XScale based systems.

Other roadmap plans include completing C99 support and the addition of
support for long long variable types for C++. Subscribers will also be 
given the opportunity to offer suggestions and provide feature requests 
to help direct the future direction of the development of the tools.

Full details of this subscription scheme can be found at
www.iyonix.com/tools/ complete with a proposed road map for the 
development of the tools.

The C/C++ RISC OS development kit includes the following software:
C/C++
Desktop tools
Assembler
User Interface toolbox
ABC Compiler
!System
Licence to use and distribute 32-bit !System updates
Programmers Reference Manuals 1-4 & 5a
C/C++ Manual
Desktop tools Manual
Assembler Manual
User Interface toolbox Manual
RISC OS Style Guide

Some of the updated features in this release are:
Bug fixes
Packed Structures
Inline assembler
Increased C99 compliance
Thumb interworking
New compiler options
New look tool icons

*Annual pricing structure for C/C++ development tools subscription:
Full price - £59
If ordered before 31st May - £49
If ordered before 31st May with payment by direct debit - £45

Issued by Mike Williams on behalf of Castle Technology Ltd