LONDON, UK - 7th August, 2001 - Codeplay, provider of high performance game development tools, announced the PlayStation®2 version of their flagship VectorC compiler. VectorC will allow PlayStation®2 games to be developed easier, faster and with more features than previously possible.
VectorC exploits the ability of the latest microprocessors to perform multiple operations in parallel. The new SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) instructions enable a large boost in processing power, however taking advantage of them is a time consuming process which has so far required the deployment of complex assembly language
programming.
VectorC recognises parallelisms in standard C/C++ source code and generates vectorized code for the supported CPUs. As a 'smart compiler', VectorC automatically utilises advanced CPU features and negates the need for time consuming assembly language programming.
On the PlayStation®2 platform, VectorC will automatically make use of the Multimedia (MMI) instructions of the MIPS CPU core in the PlayStation®2's Emotion Engine in addition to the advanced memory access optimization and instruction scheduling capabilities.
Furthermore the PlayStation®2 edition of VectorC will optionally utilise the Emotion Engine's Vector Unit 0 (VU0) in 'macro mode' if so desired. Another unique feature of VectorC on the PlayStation®2 platform will be the inclusion of a separate C/C++ compiler for the Vector Units which produces so-called 'micro mode' code.
Codeplay's Managing Director Andrew Richards said, "With VectorC our aim is to enable game developers to unleash the awesome power of PlayStation®2 and bring their wildest ideas to life. Game programmers will be able to spend more time on creating and less time on optimizing their code".
"VectorC is a much needed product to reduce development time and more easily obtain high performance on the PlayStation 2", said Jez San, CEO of Argonaut Games PLC. Neal Tringham of Empire Interactive added, "A high quality vectorizing C compiler for the PlayStation®2 could cut our development times enormously".
VectorC is available now on the PC platform, it integrates with Microsoft's Visual Studio environment and supports the latest processors such as Intel's Pentium 4 and AMD's Athlon.
VectorC {PS2} and VectorC {PC} 2.0 with full C++ support will be released in the first quarter of 2002.
Contact
For further information, contact Andrew Richards; Codeplay
Tel: +44 (0)131 466 0503
2nd Floor, 45 York Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3HP. UK.
http://www.codeplay.com
PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Intel and Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. |
