The dual-processor platform from Atmel (San Jose, Calif.) is aimed at sound processing in general and includes telephones, robotics, acoustic diagnostics, music synthesis, and ultrasound scanners.

The Chess/Checkers retargetable tool suite from Target (Leuven, Belgium), which is built around a graph-based C compiler technology, was licensed originally by Atmel in May 2005.

In the first phase, we used Targets nML processor description language and the retargetable tool suite to model our floating-point DSP architecture, said Benedetto Altieri, director of Atmels DSP center in Rome, Italy, in a statement issued by Target. We were able to tune the instruction-set architecture for better performance, using feedback from Targets retargetable compiler and simulator. In the second phase, a software development tool-kit for the DSP was generated, which Atmel can now deliver to its customers and partners, Altieri explained.