6.14. Diamond-Development Tools

A full-featured software cross-development environment supports the Diamond Standard Series of processor cores. The Xtensa Xplorer Diamond Edition is an Eclipse-based cockpit for code development using the compiler tool chain, the ISS, and the hardware emulation and development boards. The Xplorer environment also includes a software project manager and a performance-modeling tool.

The basic Xplorer GUI (graphical user interface) incorporates the XCC C/C++ compiler, which generates high-density 16/24-bit instructions for all Diamond processor cores and automatically includes 64-bit instruction bundles in the instruction stream for the 330HiFi, 545CK, and 570T Diamond cores. Proprietary compiler-optimization techniques incorporated into the XCC compiler improve density and performance in generated code for all of the Diamond processor cores. On average, the XCC compiler delivers a 20–40% improvement in performance compared to the widely used GCC compiler. When compared to other RISC processor compilers, the XCC compiler’s superior code density helps to reduce system costs (by requiring less external and internal memory) and cuts processing overhead.

The pipeline-accurate ISS for Diamond processor cores can be used for code benchmarking. Used in conjunction with the XCC/GNU tool chain, the ISS produces feedback results that enable faster code development and better system-level architectural tradeoffs.